NASCAR driver kills competitor on track.

[hornet]

Dr JonboyG said:

NASCAR unfortunately has been much less strict on this sort of thing and it is true, they basically encourage helmet throwing and other stupid nonsense. Hopefully that's going to change after this tragic accident.

Edited by Dr JonboyG on Tuesday 12th August 04:49

As much as I like NASCAR, their encouragement of the "have at it boys" culture has seen some scary incidents in recent years, Stewart amongst the culprits. Only Tony Stewart knows what really happened in this incident, but based on previous events, I sadly can believe a driver would resort to idiocy like buzzing someone or deliberately trying to rattle them.

[HQ2]

Aunt of the deceased..

Wendi Ward said:

I feel numb, I look into the eyes of family and see a deep hurt that should not be there, my heart has pounded out of my chest for hours, thanks for thinking of our family tony Stewart when you decided to be a dick! My nephew was one of a kind, a true race car driver, a piss head and a sweetie all in one, a young man who will be truly missed by many! Aunt Wendi loves you budster, forever in our hearts

[rbr76]

I might as well make my first post on here a good one!

We all will have our different opinions on what happened in this incident, I personally believe that Stewart tried to scare Ward why sliding and throwing up some dirt, but remember that the only person who actually knows what happened is Tony, so for this reason no ones opinion can be proven right or wrong at this stage.

I am sure that there will be a lengthy investigation into this by people with a lot more knowledge than posters on here. I hope the outcome of this is that this was just a accident but only time will tell...

[carl_w]

rbr76 said:

We all will have our different opinions on what happened in this incident, I personally believe that Stewart tried to scare Ward why sliding and throwing up some dirt, but remember that the only person who actually knows what happened is Tony, so for this reason no ones opinion can be proven right or wrong at this stage.

And, should your belief be true, he will have to live with that despite consoling himself that the guy was on a dimly lit track wearing a black race suit. I don't know Tony Stewart, but in his position if I knew I'd done that deliberately I'd be haunted for the rest of my life even if I'd got away with it.

[rbr76]

carl_w said:

And, should your belief be true, he will have to live with that despite consoling himself that the guy was on a dimly lit track wearing a black race suit. I don't know Tony Stewart, but in his position if I knew I'd done that deliberately I'd be haunted for the rest of my life even if I'd got away with it.

I think he, as most would be, will be haunted for the rest of life even if there is no wrongdoing on his part.

The biggest problem in this, and hopefully what wont happen again, is that Ward got out of his car and got very close to the other cars. Hopefully this will not happen again as rules will be enforced stopping this and Nascar etc (although I understand the incident was not in nascsr) will stop almost encouraging it.

[carl_w]

rbr76 said:

I think he, as most would be, will be haunted for the rest of life even if there is no wrongdoing on his part.

True but there's haunted as In "I couldn't have done anything about it" and there's haunted as in "I stupidly tried to do something and it went wrong".

[rbr76]

carl_w said:

True but there's haunted as In "I couldn't have done anything about it" and there's haunted as in "I stupidly tried to do something and it went wrong".

True, there's also the 'I got mad and turned, aiming for him' although this is the least likely and I hope that that definitely was not the case.

All in all stupid decisions from one and potentially two people resulted in the horrible outcome we had.

[rbr76]

A interesting qoute from Kevin Ward Sr

"The one person that knows what happened that night is possibly facing 10 years in prison. Is he going to say what he done?"

The whole article is here, he seems to place the blame on Stewart because of the initial incident which resulted in his son exiting his car to try and 'confront' Stewart http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nascar-from-the-marb...

Edited by rbr76 on Wednesday 13th August 22:27

[longshot]

I didn't realise he was only 20 y/o.

[kybo]

Such a tragic, tragic accident.

With Stewart's chequered past I fear we may never know the full truth.

My thoughts are not with Stewart, nor the speculation surrounding the who/what/how's of the accident, but with the family and friends of young Mr Ward Jnr.

God bless!

Scott

[Crafty_]

kybo said:

Such a tragic, tragic accident.
My thoughts are not with Stewart, nor the speculation surrounding the who/what/how's of the accident, but with the family and friends of young Mr Ward Jnr.

God bless!

Scott

Agreed that it was a tragic accident.

Given recent quotes from the family of the deceased it'll only be a mtter of time before they are seeking millions of dollars from Stewart, the track, the organiser and whoever else they can go after.

[Colonial]

rbr76 said:

A interesting qoute from Kevin Ward Sr

"The one person that knows what happened that night is possibly facing 10 years in prison. Is he going to say what he done?"

The whole article is here, he seems to place the blame on Stewart because of the initial incident which resulted in his son exiting his car to try and 'confront' Stewart http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nascar-from-the-marb...

Edited by rbr76 on Wednesday 13th August 22:27

Promising young footballer syndrome?

He put himself in an extremely dangerous situation. He ended up, sadly, dead as a result.

[eastlmark]

ESPN last night tweeted a photo titled "mourners attending Tony Ward Jr funeral" and accompanied it with a photo of a Smiling Tony Stewart.
Lets hope the employee responsible for the ESPN twitter account is looking for a new job.

[rbr76]

Tony Stewart again sits out at Michigan. There are questions surrounding when or if he will return, with some suggestions that he will retire http://www.autospies.com/news/BREAKING-NASCAR-Insi... Although these have been named as hoaxes http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/878722-tony-stewar...

No timetable for Tony Stewart return http://espn.go.com/racing/nascar/cup/story/_/id/11...

Criminal charges are still 'unlikely', although I would suspect from the families comments that they will push for criminal charges as well as trying to claim money from Stewart, the race organisers and the track - whoever they can get. http://www.npr.org/2014/08/14/340422488/criminal-c...

In response to the incident Nascar have now announced new rules to stop a repeat of this situation http://www.syracuse.com/axeman/index.ssf/2014/08/n... However I beleive this would not have effected this event as it is not Nascar sanctioned

[rbr76]

Another interesting article http://mobile.businessweek.com/news/2014-08-13/ste...

[mistakenplane]

Given that there is at least one video which was handed to the police and not put on You Tube for all the gawpers to look at, cameras on Tony's car, comments from the driver behind (I think) who said it was difficult to see and avoid Kevin Ward, and that the Police are treating it as a racing incident, not a criminal one, all suggest there was little Tony could have done to avoid it.

The court of public opinion seems to be that Tony has a temper and he would swerve INTO Kevin, when Kevin would be the angry one as he spun out?

For most people it seems as someone was killed, someone must be at fault. That there could be a horrible accident during racing seems to escape them.

[McSam]

mistakenplane said:

Given that there is at least one video which was handed to the police and not put on You Tube for all the gawpers to look at, cameras on Tony's car, comments from the driver behind (I think) who said it was difficult to see and avoid Kevin Ward, and that the Police are treating it as a racing incident, not a criminal one, all suggest there was little Tony could have done to avoid it.

The court of public opinion seems to be that Tony has a temper and he would swerve INTO Kevin, when Kevin would be the angry one as he spun out?

For most people it seems as someone was killed, someone must be at fault. That there could be a horrible accident during racing seems to escape them.

I completely agree. Looking at the visibility you have from one of these cars in those conditions, especially midway through a race, you'd be very lucky to see Ward before he was under your wheels.

Things to bear in mind are that Stewart is not likely to have been looking Ward's way. If there's a car stopped at the side of the track you really only glance long enough to record where it is and how far you need to stay over to avoid it. You don't keep staring at it, because then you'll drive into the bloody thing. Not looking in that direction combined with never, ever expecting a pedestrian of any kind on the circuit - especially not one dressed in black and walking onto the line as you're coming towards him - makes me think the first Stewart would've known about it was the impact.

If I felt an impact of some kind when under yellows, I'd probably get straight on the power thinking I'd been nudged from behind.

Finally, can you imagine the sort of person it would take to deliberately mow down another person? A fellow driver? Does that sound like something a guy who spends his working life going wheel to wheel with dozens of racers at over 200mph would do?

[HQ2]

No criminal charges and the young lad was under the influence of marijuana apparently.

[hornetrider]

HQ2 said:

No criminal charges and the young lad was under the influence of marijuana apparently.

Oh dear.

[Crafty_]

Well, thank goodness thats over. I guess its down to the Ward family if they want to drag this through the civil courts now.