Tony Stewart hits and kills fellow racer

Question is was it within Stewart's power to avoid the collision? Why did he rev it at the moment of impact?

 

I haven't seen enough footage to make a personal determination but I can say that for myself, I've accelerated to avoid a collision multiple times.

GT

 

Agreed. I would say it's possible stewart may not have seen him at alll until it was too late.

I will add that it would be in Stewart's best interest to bow out of racing today. Seems disrespectful not to.

 

I've never raced cars, but I have dirt bikes. When in doubt give it more gas.

 

I agree. I am amazed he is planning to race today. Terrible PR if nothing else. It would behoove him to at least ACT like he is so shaken by this he is unable to race.

 

Lots of track persona is for the fans like WWF wrestling. Not knowing TS the person it is unfair to consider the guy a hotheaded guy with possible intent to do harm. He is a racer but it is his job. He may be racing today not completely of his own choice. Also, video does not tell the whole story. One video can convict you and another angle can vindicate you. That's just the way it is. We will have to wait for the investigation.

 

Just looked at it with a good dozen top notch LMP/GT racers behind me. All agreed:

Young driver was stupid to be walking on track.
Tony gave a little throttle to the car just before (50 ft-ish) the accident.
Stepping on the throttle slide rear end out-towards wall-very very clear on video.
Tony saw or felt or suspected he was a bit too close-or thought that the car had rotated a little too much and tried-and did correct with a small turn to the left.
That was too late. He had already hit and was dragging driver down road.

An accident for sure but one that happened due to anger of one driver and arrogance of the other.

Tony -right or wrong-will have to deal with whatever demons he will be living with from this.

But I had 10-12 top drivers with me and they all think Tony has some explaining to do.

And no-No reason to say what drivers were hanging around... Not relevant.

 

It's a tragically juicy story.

People will speculate and implant their own motives forever.

It's hard for me to believe that ANY racer would purposefully hit another pedestrian driver intentionally with his race car.

That would amount to outright murder.

You're going to throw everything away in front of all those witnesses to murder because of a racing collision incident?

Really?

 

Agreed

Even the title of this post and most of the headlines are grossly inflammatory. Yes from a purely technical standpoint TS did 'hit' and 'kill' a fellow racer but the headlines I have read stink of assumptions and sensationalism. I think we are better than this and urge the moderators to edit the thread title.

On the subject of the accident I think there is plenty of blame to go around and certainly there is more to the incident than can be ascertained from the available footage. While I will first await for more information before rendering my opinion I do believe that no racer would outright mow down another person (driver or not) regardless of which buttons of theirs they push. Bumping cars is one thing but a car against a person is a whole other situation and I am certain that TS is well aware of that both as a professional and human being.

 

No, not murder, which is an act with intent to kill. But he may easily have intended to scare or "teach that rookie some respect" by buzzing him and pushing him back. In which case, this could result in the charge of criminally negligent homicide. It was an intentional act (with, potentially, a very bad miscalculation) that ended up in a death. However, ultimately, the burden of proof is beyond reasonable doubt in a criminal case.

It's far too preliminary to determine if a criminal case can or would be brought by a DA. Regardless, I'm not sure it's in the best interests of the sport to do so. If an on-track death (or on field/ice/court, depending on the sport) occurs, should we be looking to prosecute for criminal offenses? Obviously, fines, bans and even lifetime bans can be imposed by the sanctioning bodies, but should these events go to a criminal prosecution?

There may be a point at which they should (and, maybe, this meets that criteria), but I think we need to be very carefully considering the consequences before calling for any athlete's head for incidents that occur in the heat and passion of the moment. But, technically, I think an investigation could be opened and a prosecution could arise out of this incident. Whether a conviction is achievable, I don't know. It would depend on the jury.

CW

 

What was Ward thinking to get out of his car and walk into the middle of the track? You never do that and it cost him his life. Tony may be charged for something like manslaughter. He has a temper but he's also a very intelligent driver and I highly doubt he would intentionally run someone over.

 

Allocating blame is really more a civil trial issue (in terms of apportioning an award so as not to reward someone entirely for something they've partly caused). Which, btw, is also something that could spring out of this.

There are defenses to criminal charges that consider the actions of the victim, but I don't think they would apply here. For example, murder can be defended by an exclusion for the use of deadly force where the shooter's life or the lives of others are in grave danger. Clearly not the case here.

CW

 

My only thought is what lesson did Tony have to teach him? In his mind, what was he thinking? It's not like they exchanged words. The bump up the track looked fairly normal for this type of racing. For all we know, the driver that got of his car is the only person that even saw the event as confrontational. (the wreck) Tony may have been who and why is this guy in the track. It did look like the 45 could have been right in his line of sight. He swerved down (the 45) giving TS only a split second to react.

 

The title should be 'driver kills self due to stupidity, Tony Stewart collateral damage.' I doubt Stewart even saw him, he was probably looking at the wrecked car up the track.

 

I agree with this.

I also agree that Stewart should not race today, if nothing else out of respect.

 

great post.

 

Bobzdar is 100% correct. The fault is Ward's. He killed himself acting stupid like that. End of story.

 

Agreed. NEVER on a hot track. There will be time to deal with any disagreements when the race is over. I've seen drivers go across a hot track and cringed...

But, we can also blame drivers like Stewart for setting a bad example on a national stage. They do what Ward did (and worse), so maybe, through emulation (and kid-glove response from the sanctioning bodies), that's how people have learned that this kind of conduct is okay on a race track.

It's not.

CW

 

Tony will not drive in the Sprint Cup race today and will be replaced by Regan Smith.

 

According to an update he will not be racing today.

 

yep, just saw that about 30 seconds after posting.

Tony Stewart will not race today; Regan Smith to drive No. 14 | MotorSportsTalk

 

You are spot on with this one...regardless how you feel as to fault etc. the victims family will be getting lawyer'd up very soon. This is just the being of what will be interesting Civil Case to follow.

 

stewart is a known hot head. he is known to get out of his car and throw helmets and fists at younger drivers. he demands respect or he takes the posture of a bully.

ward got taken out by stewart and ward decided to grandstand a bit and show stewart he was not going to yield to stewart due to his celebrity. stewart decides he will show the punk what's up and how we roll in the bigs. stewart miscalculates and tragedy

stop defending stewart. stop saying it is insane and unheard of to get out of the car on the track as if it is never done on a Saturday night. stewart is a known prick and he effed up. he should be accountable but instead he will walk.

btw...he will not race today.

 

Not end of story. We'll see, but what radio transmissions were made leading up to and after the incident? What wheel-to-wheel racing was going between them that could have worked them up? These aren't excuses, rather they're efforts to discern whether there could have been an intent on the part of TS to do something.

If he was racing hard with Ward, couldn't get around, was getting chopped off and punted the guy, emotions would be running high for both.

If he was lapping him and Ward was in his way, wouldn't move over and TS punted him, emotions would be running high for both.

I think there's a certain amount of ego necessary to be a good race car driver. And, Smoke plays on a big stage, with lots of people possibly gunning for him. And, maybe he took it upon himself to teach someone a lesson. And, maybe it backfired. Maybe, maybe, maybe.

But, there's no question it took two to tango.

CW