But not a reason TS was angry. Watch the video. Hard to tell if TS's car even touched Ward.

A day of R(oad) & R(age). ;)

Maybe. You might be right.
But most drivers don't usually put someone into the wall they're "happy" with.
It seems more likely (to me) that they were duking it out. Red mist for both.

I'd really like to see gopro footage from TS's car. I think that would answer the question conclusively.
Except, it wouldn't. :)

The more I read and think about this, he killed him by blipping the throttle when he passed him. I'm not saying that he intended to hit or kill the guy but if he'd simply held steady speed and not turned the wheel like the other cars right before him, the kid would be alive.

He might get away with it but he knows what he did and so does everyone else in NASCAR. He will have to live with it.

I have a good friend, (see him constantly), who was a professional boxer who "killed" someone in the ring. He did absolutely nothing wrong or dirty in that fight or any other but his opponent died shortly after their fight. He is tormented for life by this and has had to do a lot of work on himself to try to get past it. What TS did was a different category. His reckless actions directly caused the kid's death.

HAhahahahhahahahahahaahaha, etc. :D

Why is it strange? You can never truly prove someone's intent, only speculate. In that speculation, past patterns of behavior are relevant. I'm not sure why, given the history, you wouldn't consider this may have been an intentional act gone wrong.

"TS" is a notorious hothead on-track. He crowded the kid into the rail and then I'd bet he saw that kid standing in the track waiting for him. TS immediately thought OH YEAH? and went in close to intimidate and humiliate him by showering him with dirt. As stated earlier, his flash of testosterone (kid's too) caused this to go out of hand.

Now TS can stew in legal-team induced seclusion and wonder why his temper goes out of control. Unless he's a psychopath. In that case he's pissed that people are mad at him and that the lawyers are circling. Kinda' like Lance Armstrong not being remorseful about all that cheating.

I actually feel bad for TS.
Most people seem to say he's a lovely guy off the track.
Even if he wasn't trying to scare the kid (which I "tend" to believe he was), he'll have to live with this forever.

And the kids family... I can't imagine what they're going through.

The whole thing is awful.

Speeder, I can't believe anyone can form a solid opinion from that video. To form an opinion by reading new articles and watching that video is ridiculous. Let the experts on those cars and video geeks do there thing. Also after TS gets his lawyer and does his police interview. I can't believe how fast some people are to judge.

I watched that video at the point of impact over 20 times and I can't tell what exactly the car was doing. Looks like the guy was past the front wheel before the throttle blip, and that blip made the rear move away from the guy. I could not slow it down though, so maybe I'm wrong. I know the rear tires are wider, but do they stick out more than the front? Could be TS saw how close the guy was and tried to move the backend away? We will just have to wait for the investigation. Unless TS admits to trying to scare or hurt him, than I don't see any prosecution coming on this.

Relax people, the only fact is, no one except Tony knows.

This was a good article:
Nobody Wins | montedutton.com

It's important to note for those that armchair this (just like many other videos debated here)... the entire thing took less than :30. From the crash to the death. Stuff can get out of hand quick....outside the moment in the jury box, etc it's very different than at the time.

He blipped his throttle as he was going past him. The car twitched and then things went sideways, ( maybe this is the origin of that expression?).

I don't believe for one second that TS intentionally killed the guy, or even meant to seriously injure him. Stuff like this has happened about 1 million times out on the street when someone uses the gas pedal to make a statement or express rage in the moment, often with unintended consequences. I also do not believe that Ward stepped into the rear wheel, I think the car twitched when he blipped it. TS knows what happened but believe me, he's not saying.

"Slow" is all relative. He was still traveling fast enough to get ticketed on any public road in America. These cars have a certain minimum speed; there is no clutch or transmission of any kind. There is a mechanism through which the rear end gears can be disengaged, but essentially if it's running it's rolling. Quite fast, even at what passes as "idle" for a 900 hp alcohol burning smallblock.

This happened very near the corner exit, but certainly still in the corner. Take another look at the video.

That, and I'll bet like any good race driver, once he established where the stationary car was, his eyes were already down the track at the next corner. He had turned inside and left plenty of room to clear the threat (the stationary car), and it was time to close the gap to the car ahead of him. It was just a yellow flag, so any race driver will do that, will bunch up the field behind the cars in front of himself. Once he was sure he was not going to hit the parked car, it was time to get after it and catch up. He never expected anyone to be in the track.

All it takes is one car passing close to the camera to think one on the far side of the track "blipped it".

Until the Police close the investigation, or charges are put in action, I will hold with innocent until proven guilty. I am sure other camera's recorded this, and will make their way to the police, and hopefuly not make it to news vultures to feed on. I am also sure any official investigation will talk with and review things with actual driver's of these cars.

I have heard from two people that were there, ultimately, IMHO, Ward got too close to a short wheel base high downforce vehicle at sub optimal handling speed and conditions. Its like stepping in front of a two trucks passing another semi truck on the interstate. Sure in some hypothetical world the trailing semi truck could see/react in time to miss you.

The time for Tony Stewart to make any conscious decision to "throw dirt" or "intimidate" Ward from when he would notice/see him(if it all) is so narrow as to be difficult for me, or you to ascertain. I also know from racing on "dirt myself" that "throwing dirt" can be nearly impossible on some tracks due to the fact the surface sticks like glue. I am not familiar with this track or track conditions at the time to know, but I doubt "throwing dirt" occurs to a national level dirt racer - because a great deal of the tracks when wetted down for racing it is not really possible to "throw dirt".

He did blip the throttle as he went by, I agree but, watch the video over and over, the rear moved away from the guy. So say you are coming around a corner, drifting a little to the outside (which it looks like he was, hard to tell), all the sudden this guy is running at your car, what do you do? You see yourself drifting into the guy. if you turn left your backend will swing out and hit him. If you turn right, you hit him. Wait for the front tire to pass him, turn right and blip to move the rear away, looks like this to me. Remember this happened so fast but we are talking about one of the best race car drivers out there, looked like a good move but not enough. I hoping that that was his intention. I still have hope for the human race, although it is weakening.

If I were to speculate, I'd say:

There is a lot of hand wringing going on in a high level HOME DEPOT boardroom today.....

After being at race speed, in race conditions, 35 - 40 mph (the reported speed he was traveling) under yellow, feels like standing still... super slow motion. TS wasn't going slow... he was going very, very slow.

Why? They sponsor Matt Kenseth now.

TM would have never been shot......had GZ just stayed in his truck.

Oops...wrong thread.

TS would have never run over that kid....had he just stayed in his car.

I'm trying really hard not to speculate.

Two things are bothersome to me:

1. That a professional driver would come to dead stop on an active track unless there was a red flag or he knew he ran over (or hit) something more than debris (or another vehicle).

2. The blip of the throttle. There has been a lot of discussion about it here. Certainly some plausible theories, but the idea that he intentionally induced throttle over steer at that proximity to avoid hitting something seems hard to believe.
Especially waiting until after the object passed the front tires and steering away from the direction of travel (at the wall). Nobody is that good, and in a car designed to over steer to the drivers right. Sorry Grog.

Under yellow, at yellow speeds, if you turn left the rear wheels will track with the front wheels. TS would have to gas it to get the rear wheels out enough to hit the kid.

TS saw him, defiantly held his line toward the kid to intimidate him, perhaps gassed it to throw dirt on him and hit him instead.

Criminal on TS's part? Unlikely. Stupid on both of their parts? Very likely.

What is one of the first things you are taught when doing a drivers ed and you crash? Two in & STAY in the car unless there is a fire. Since opinions are being given here is mine. They kid was trying to be a tough guy and going to show up TS in front of the locals. It's a shame he got killed. CRASHCAR could stop all this... You get out of your car before the safety team arrives and you sit the next race. The kid was trying to be one of the boys.

I'd go a bit further than that if I were king....you sit out the rest of the season. Harsh penalty, but that'd put a stop to it NOW. If it's within the last few races of a season, then sit out the next one...

I agree.

Some of the comments are re-inventing what actually happened.
Check out the screen caps:

TS was following the same exact line as the car in front of him. Both cars are toward the bottom of the track. The driver, Ward, who exited his car and entered the hot track on foot pursued the oncoming cars. He stepped in front of TS's car and instigated contact.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1407786161.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1407786202.jpg

Both cars were oversteering, even at slower speeds. TS was going no faster, and did not swerve to hit Ward. TS's car did not change in speed, nor it's angle until after Ward was hit and underneath the rear wheel. Ward's body caused TS's car to drift outward toward the wall. If anything, TS countersteered the rear of the car AWAY FROM Ward, but by then it was too late.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1407786249.jpg

The fact that the guy ended up dead does not absolve him of blame for the incident. Nor does any of the events up to that moment have any relevance to what caused the death or assign blame. It was a hot track, cars were circling in a predictable fashion, and the driver who was on foot risked his life and paid the price for it.

As mentioned earlier - YANK their racing lic.! That will get everyones attention. Sadly, shenanigans on and off the track makes promoters and series / league owners happy. Until they step on some of these hot headed drivers, nothing will change.

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/175/4...6bd22c1ac0.jpg

"Some of the comments are re-inventing what actually happened."

No offense intended but the same could be said of your comments. We're all just spouting opinions here, me included:

My money's on TS losing his temper on purpose and killing the kid by accident. He's shown this proclivity toward anger and rage time and time again. Any good prosecutor would dig relentlessly at this aspect of his personality and reputation.

But TS will be fine. He'll pay his PR dues for a while and the news cycle will move on soon. Probably a financial settlement (with a strict gag order attached) to make the kid's family go away. NASCAR and TS will show sympathy, publicly, but the show must go on, the money must keep coming in uninterrupted.

As for him losing sleep? Maybe, maybe not. Any aggressive competitor, whatever the endeavor, rarely has feelings of remorse or any misgivings or guilt about the effect of their actions on others. On camera? Sure, the good actors have the ability to seem remorseful if they need to save their rear. If TS is losing sleep it's because he screwed up big this time and wants it to go away as quickly as possible.

Really guys ??? Racers are aggressive. You don't win by pussy-footing around a race track. You use skill, tenacity, and aggressiveness to fight to the front and win the race.

The real issue is that the kid (Ward) is dead because he got out of his car. If he had controlled his emotions he would still be among the living.

Why don't some of you who seem to know exactly what TS was thinking, use your telepathic powers to figure out why the kid felt the compelling urge to jump out on a hot race track and chase cars.

I still fail to see what NASCAR has to do with this in regards to PR?

All those races were for real money and for his professional job. This race's purse was likely less than he had in his pocket. I assume he's doing this race for fun....why would you get all angry about that? Especially since he didn't get wrecked.

Regarding his personality? That's a bit like the Zimmerman trial all over again.

^^This. X100


I was actually at the Glen for the race yesterday. I don't know what was said on TV about it, they officially said very little to nothing at the track. They swapped in another driver and didn't say a whole lot.

Everyone at the track was abuzz about it. Lot of folks said he should have stayed in the car. Everyone knows this. Not quite the lynching that the internet is giving. I watch a lot of NASCAR races, the first thing you do it lower the window net so everyone knows you're OK.

Sprint cars are crazy machines. I don't particular care for that style of racing. I wouldn't get near one ever on foot. Ever. They don't even have a pace car, they have to get push started and keep moving.

I feel terrible for all involved.

In the middle picture above, it looks like he's being hit and knocked down by
Stewart's FRONT wheel. Am I seeing it wrong, or is this how you all see it?

Any second year law student doing clinical mock trials would have the jury instructed to disregard "past" confrontations that TS may have had in other races, and to consider only the facts of that night. There is no way that any jury would be allowed to speculate as to TS's "state of mind" based on past events.

Both the blue car and red car are moving at a slight sideways angle relative to the center of the car.

NASCAR, WOO, sprints, Indy Racing whatever leagues don't really seem to come down on all this nonsense. The bullrings do in a way bring a different type of fan base in. Not trying to single anyone out and I too have attended a few myself, but its quite apparent. For one thing, anytime there's an incident, one will see fans cheering. No denying that and even in this latest tragedy, I wouldn't doubt a few fans were cheering. They love the wrecks.

Where am I going with this? Obviously promoters want the fans to enjoy the show and the more fiasco's creating cheering fans, the more its encouraged and ticket / related sales. The good guy bad guy, er' girl too makes for common debate with fans. They love it and as long as they do, these racing leagues feed them.

So what to do? Pull the racing license on these kind of racers. The message will clearly be sent that its not tolerated. The leagues INCLUDING NASCAR have the RESPONSIBILTY to enforce and promote safety. We know Stewart's reputation on the track and antics but even though the latest incident may have not been intentional, he should have pulled from NASCAR years ago. Jackazz on track, good boy at home, doesn't matter. As for this kid Ward, had there been a heavy enforcement in place long before he was racing, he might have restrained his temper or showmanship.

Explain to me why TS would be angry at Ward? What did Ward do to TS to make him mad? Mad enough to run him over???

exactly

Good point. Ward was a DNF and Stewart was still racing. There would have to be some video of Ward hassling Stewart to show why Steward was upset enough to run him over.

The dirt track I race at highly frowns on shenanigans/fights as it causes them headaches. They scream and yell at us over the race radios threatening to DQ us or black flag us when we appear to be about to retaliate during or after a race. I would bet money that the race controller was yelling at this douche bag to get back to his car over the race receiver..... Not that the guy was likely listening even if he had the race receiver on him once he got out. I can tell you that emotions can get the best of you in this type of racing. Fortunately getting killed because of it is extremely rare.

True, I was discussing this with my wife. Of all the years I have been a spectator or driver on a dirt track, we have seen these same events unfold a thousand times, sometimes 4-5 times a night. Unfortunately for this young driver, it cost him his life. Fwiw, TS probably didn't even know the guy spun out if they didn't make contact and for sure he probably didn't see him on the track. When you are out there, you are breathing burning oil and exhaust, dripping sweat from the engine heat coming in on you and you have dirt in your face. Top that off with your visor fogging up and that don't even take into account the stance of the car or the wing hindering his view. Just a sad day at the track imho.

^^
Congrats on your win Tim.
No fisticuffs needed.

Not trying to be smug but it does seem rather weird big time money 'smoke' TS frequents small time tracks. Was on the schedule to race this coming Sat. 16th at:
BIg Events at Wilmot Raceway

Between the blown alky boats and then this short track, its an earshot every weekend from our N. IL home. And quite fitting they have demolition combines and truck tractor pulls. Maybe that's a better suited activity for the rabid 'professional' circle drivers.