The Tony Stewart Situation

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dmiles2186
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The Tony Stewart Situation

Post by dmiles2186 »

I know a lot of us here don't follow racing (or at least, not from what I've seen). I don't either. But this is such a sad, shocking, horrifying story. I've seen a lot of people on social media blaming Kevin Ward, Jr. for putting himself in harm's way. I've seen a lot of people blaming Tony Stewart for supposedly gunning the gas, which caused the back end to kick out, which caught Kevin Ware and threw them 20+ yards.

It's hard to place blame in a situation in a time like this, especially on the deceased. It seems like it just went from a bad situation to a nightmare in a heartbeat. You wonder if Stewart saw Ward and tried to just give him a 'warning' by spraying dirt on him. Or maybe he didn't see him and he goosed it to get out of the way. Who knows? All I know is I'm sick to my stomach over this thing. Such an awful chain of events.
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glen a richter
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Re: The Tony Stewart Situation

Post by glen a richter »

I don't follow nascar at all, being that I'm an elitist east coast prick who finds the concept of making repeated sets of left turns for 3 hours straight kind of stupid. But, the account I read which is probably the same everyone saw, I would have to put the fault on Ward. He got out of his car, approached and pointed at Stewart to draw attention to himself following a blowout/spinout? Why the hell would you get out of your car and approach anywhere near cars whizzing around a race track? In any event, it is a terrible thing for everyone involved, obviously. The loss of any human life is a terrible thing and I feel bad for everyone living and dead who has any connection to this.
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Re: The Tony Stewart Situation

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glen a richter wrote:I don't follow nascar at all, being that I'm an elitist east coast prick who finds the concept of making repeated sets of left turns for 3 hours straight kind of stupid. But, the account I read which is probably the same everyone saw, I would have to put the fault on Ward. He got out of his car, approached and pointed at Stewart to draw attention to himself following a blowout/spinout? Why the hell would you get out of your car and approach anywhere near cars whizzing around a race track? In any event, it is a terrible thing for everyone involved, obviously. The loss of any human life is a terrible thing and I feel bad for everyone living and dead who has any connection to this.
It wasn't NASCAR. This was a sprint car race on dirt. However, people do this on all levels of racing, from NASCAR to trucks to dirt track. Ward was doing what a ton of racers have done before him.


I have been asked by My job at FOX Sports TV and 3 radio stations to give my view of the tragic accident involving the death of Kevin Ward Jr in CANANDAIGUA, N.Y while racing against Tony Stewart ... I hesitated to give my view but after a day of thinking about it we need to learn why this happened ... I am INCREDIBLEY Sorry and SAD to the Kevin Ward Jr Family ... I am a equal part owner with Tony Stewart and Kenny Schrader and Bob Sargent of our DIRT track in Macon Illinois at MACON SPEEDWAY ... I have been racing on DIRT tracks for 10 years all over the United States and Canada and this year I have raced more than 60 DIRT races ... About once a month I see drivers do the EXACT same thing Kevin Ward Jr did ... They get out of the race car after a wreck and walk "ON" the race track surface while cars are still going in circles to confront the CAR and driver they had the wreck with ... I have ALWAYS thought it was dangerous ... After I watched the video of the accident "Over and Over" it was clear to me that the RACING INDUSTRY needs to come together and STOP the driver from walking on the race track while cars are still going around at a good rate of speed ... I BLAME NO ONE AND THE BLAME GAME IS NOT A GOOD ROAD TO TRAVEL ... This accident was a "Cautionary Tale" that happens every week at all race tracks around the world and now needs to be banned.
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Re: The Tony Stewart Situation

Post by glen a richter »

I don't know what any of them are thinking but I certainly wouldn't get out of my car on the long island expressway to confront someone. That's just asinine. Walking into moving traffic is walking into moving traffic no matter what or where.
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Re: The Tony Stewart Situation

Post by cardsfan04 »

I don't know the first thing about racing and don't know what to make of it. I watched the video before knowing it happened as a result of a confrontation and the first thing I thought was that it was intentional. I don't know if it was or not and couldn't hold my own in a debate on it. It was just my first reaction.

Regardless, it's really sad though. A 20yo kid is dead now as a result of something that happened during what was supposed to be entertainment. I can't imagine what his family is going through right now.
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Re: The Tony Stewart Situation

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First of all, this was very tragic and my thoughts go out to everyone involved.

Obviously nobody really knows what Tony Stewart's true intention was except for Tony Stewart. However, there are a few points to make regarding the video:

1) Nobody should EVER be walking around on a race track when a race is still going on, period. This is especially true if it's a dimly lit track and you're basically clad in solid black from head to toe.

2) Tony Stewart hit the gas right before running into Ward. Some say this means he tried to hit him, others say that by hitting the gas it was actually an attempt to avoid him; he was in a fishtail from the turn so hitting the gas theoretically should have pulled the car down toward the bottom of the track, but it was just too late. This would be better confirmed by someone who's more familiar with this type of racing. I'm not an expert, but I tend to believe the latter part of this. It does bother me a bit that the car appears to be moving up toward the wall when contact is made, the opposite of what should be happening...

3) Other racers have claimed that there was plenty of time for Stewart to avoid him if he wanted to. Again, I don't know. With the video it's hard to tell how much time there really was once he came out of the turn.

3) Tony Stewart is known for having temper and being somewhat of a dirty racer. Would he actually intentionally run over somebody though? I don't think he would, but you can't rule it out entirely. This is something that will probably hover over him for the rest of his life. If he truly didn't mean to hit him, that's sad. If he did, I guess he deserves it and then some.

Why don't they make him take a lie detector test? That'll answer most of these. Unfortunately, they won't do that so we'll just be left to speculate forever.
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Re: The Tony Stewart Situation

Post by cprice12 »

I am not a racing fan. I actually despise it. But this really isn't about racing.

Common sense says that you do not get out of your car to confront other cars still going around the track. It's stating the obvious, but it's very dangerous and you are only asking for something bad to happen. NOTHING good can happen by getting out of your car. Always a bad idea....always. Simply getting out of his car to confront Tony Stewart automatically puts a good chunk of the blame on Kevin Ward because he purposely put himself in that dangerous situation. And then for Ward to move even farther down the track to purposely get close to Stewart as he came by...ugh, even dumber.

I don't think Stewart hit him on purpose because I am inclined to believe he isn't a murderer. I have to think he was gunning it to either get out of the way of Ward, or simply scare him or throw dirt on him or whatever...which doesn't excuse what Stewart did by any means, but I don't think the intent was there to actually run over Ward...not in front of all of those people and cameras. It wouldn't make any sense.
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Re: The Tony Stewart Situation

Post by Portland Blues »

I've actually gone through a few types of racing training and every form of racing I've been involved with the first thing you learn is that you don't leave your car unless it's on fire. I know the culture of certain types of racing tends to turn a blind eye to WWF-style antics but this was a no-win situation for both men...

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Re: The Tony Stewart Situation

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A good description of what it's like driving a sprint car from someone who races one:

"When witnessing a sprint car moving around the track prior to a race you will notice the front tires bouncing erratically side to side. The erratic movement is caused by the alignment of the front wheels being nearly parallel to each other (compared to a minimal toe in or toe out on a standard automobile), and the quick ratio of the steering gear to steering wheel movement (allowing a driver to quickly counter steer when traveling sideways around a corner at 100+ miles per hour). Secondly, trying to harness a 700 horsepower engine at idle is nearly as intense as driving at full speed. These engines are violent in their behaviors and extremely explosive to the smallest “twitch” of the throttle. The throttle is controlled by your foot/ankle movements strapped to a lever directly fastened to the engine. Idle to full throttle is about 4” maximum movement. Sprint cars are setup to steer right, but turn left. This may be confusing, but the dynamics of a sprint car cause it to be more stable at higher speeds traveling “sideways” around the race track. The engine is directly linked to the rear tires. There is no clutch, no transmission, resulting in no stopping with the engine running and in gear, also resulting in violent movements again when the throttle is twitched. There is only a brake on the left front tire, and the solid rear axle, causing the car to lurch leftward when applying the brake, and requiring a slight steer to the right when moving slowly to keep the car going straight."

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Re: The Tony Stewart Situation

Post by ViPeRx007 »

Portland Blues wrote:A good description of what it's like driving a sprint car from someone who races one:

"When witnessing a sprint car moving around the track prior to a race you will notice the front tires bouncing erratically side to side. The erratic movement is caused by the alignment of the front wheels being nearly parallel to each other (compared to a minimal toe in or toe out on a standard automobile), and the quick ratio of the steering gear to steering wheel movement (allowing a driver to quickly counter steer when traveling sideways around a corner at 100+ miles per hour). Secondly, trying to harness a 700 horsepower engine at idle is nearly as intense as driving at full speed. These engines are violent in their behaviors and extremely explosive to the smallest “twitch” of the throttle. The throttle is controlled by your foot/ankle movements strapped to a lever directly fastened to the engine. Idle to full throttle is about 4” maximum movement. Sprint cars are setup to steer right, but turn left. This may be confusing, but the dynamics of a sprint car cause it to be more stable at higher speeds traveling “sideways” around the race track. The engine is directly linked to the rear tires. There is no clutch, no transmission, resulting in no stopping with the engine running and in gear, also resulting in violent movements again when the throttle is twitched. There is only a brake on the left front tire, and the solid rear axle, causing the car to lurch leftward when applying the brake, and requiring a slight steer to the right when moving slowly to keep the car going straight."
Well that makes perfect sense.....

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Re: The Tony Stewart Situation

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ViPeRx007 wrote:
Portland Blues wrote:A good description of what it's like driving a sprint car from someone who races one:

"When witnessing a sprint car moving around the track prior to a race you will notice the front tires bouncing erratically side to side. The erratic movement is caused by the alignment of the front wheels being nearly parallel to each other (compared to a minimal toe in or toe out on a standard automobile), and the quick ratio of the steering gear to steering wheel movement (allowing a driver to quickly counter steer when traveling sideways around a corner at 100+ miles per hour). Secondly, trying to harness a 700 horsepower engine at idle is nearly as intense as driving at full speed. These engines are violent in their behaviors and extremely explosive to the smallest “twitch” of the throttle. The throttle is controlled by your foot/ankle movements strapped to a lever directly fastened to the engine. Idle to full throttle is about 4” maximum movement. Sprint cars are setup to steer right, but turn left. This may be confusing, but the dynamics of a sprint car cause it to be more stable at higher speeds traveling “sideways” around the race track. The engine is directly linked to the rear tires. There is no clutch, no transmission, resulting in no stopping with the engine running and in gear, also resulting in violent movements again when the throttle is twitched. There is only a brake on the left front tire, and the solid rear axle, causing the car to lurch leftward when applying the brake, and requiring a slight steer to the right when moving slowly to keep the car going straight."
Well that makes perfect sense.....

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Even Viper said that!

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