Tony Stewart, this is not good
 

Nasty situation for everyone, pretty senseless. Guy should have stayed in his car.

AOL.com Article - NASCAR's Stewart hits, kills driver on NY track

that looks like at least manslaughter, maybe more.

Have no idea if "Smoke" also lost his cool (and could have avoided him) or it was just stupidity on the other driver's part to exit his car and TRY to attack a 3000 lb lethal weapon...wouldn't be the first time I've seen that either. Tragic either way imo...RIP. Just goes to show how one's life can be changed/ended in an instant of utter stupidity...

edited: I couldn't see the vid posted, but had seen the report on the news without video. Does it "appear" intentional?

He appears to hit the throttle as he makes contact.

It's being reported that Stewart gunned the engine supposedly with the intent to spray the driver with dirt, but the car slid out and hit the other driver. Stupid and sad/senseless. I get the heat of the moment but you have to remember you are driving a potential lethal weapon. Will be interesting if charges are filed, condolences to the deceased and his family.

Thanks for posting that vid Baz. I watched it a few times and simply can't tell although you can certainly hear him gun the engine. Appears like TS "could" have moved over more to his left however and did the exact opposite. It'll have to be analyzed in slow-motion....certainly not looking good for TS from my perspective however...but I doubt if even a manslaughter charge would stick. WTF was the deceased driver thinking? ....Oh that's right, he wasn't thinking :(. Tragic for all parties involved imo...

I dunno guys......

My first thought is that other driver shouldn't have left his race car and wandered into the path of the other cars which were still racing.

You also have to wonder why a caution flag wasn't dropped the minute his car went into the wall and stopped.

And where were the corner workers and track marshals?

Of course......that does not excuse Stewart of any wrong doing. It just adds questions to the whole situation.

Ultimately a detailed technical review must be done with how Stewart behaved as he approached the other driver.

If he drove into him - whether to spray him with dirt or otherwise, I'm afraid he will receive some portion of responsibility - and whatever form of punishment that goes along with that.

Whether intentionally, or unintentionally, it appears from that video that Tony is responsible. Great men make great mistakes.

I read an article that said a yellow had been thrown & the incident happened under caution.

OK thanks - that's what I would have expected.

Yellow flag was out, Stewart gunned his engine as he drove by which kicked out the rear of the car and he ran over the other driver with his rear tire. Threw the guy about 50 feet. He apparently had his crew change the tire in the pits, hopefully the police grabbed it.

Stewart's always been an a-hole, this is ridiculous though. Bet he ends up with manslaughter charges.

TS will be hung out to dry for this one. He is about 95% responsible.

Oooh. They're gonna be lovin' him all day and all night in the big house.

Nope....even IF a manslaughter charge is pursued...he'll "beat" it imo. RICH folks have different outcomes than the rest of us :(.

Oh my......my heart just sank watching that video. What a waste.
I feel so sorry for that young mans family, and I cant imagine what Stewart thought he was doing and how he must be feeling right now.
Do you guys see jail time? or at least an end to his public career?

His lawyers are putting in some overtime hours today.

This track is only about 20 minutes from my house. It is a shame that it even happened. The deceased driver shouldn't have been out of his car unless it was on fire. TS, if the track was under yellow should have been more aware. In the AOL article (posted above) that his view was blocked by a car in front of him that swerved to miss the deceased driver, TS may have hit the gas to try a last minute avoidance of accident....who knows. It will be interesting to see how this all unfolds. I bet it is the last time TS runs at Canandaigua. Last year some overly ambitious driving on his part damn near paralyzed a young driver and wrecked 15 cars. I mean it is nice to have a professional come and play on the local track but the locals are not in the same league as TS, he should tone it down a little.

Looks to me like two men made one bad choice each.

The current theory is Stewart wanted to spray the guy with dirt on his way by and overgunned it. Either way he's got to see jail time.

Now if this happened to a regular person, you can bet the punishment would be much more severe than whatever the final outcome of this case will be.

Bad, bad, bad.... My first thought after reading about this is that he intended to kick the rear out and spray the guy. Under caution, slow, and most of the cars are on the left side of the track - I have to believe that TS could see the driver clearly. It sure doesn't look like a case of "whoops, the car in front swerved and there appears the driver on foot that I can't avoid." A seasoned professional like that sees way ahead of the car.

Not saying that is what actually happened though. Still, the 19 year old driver should have never gotten out of his car like that. They do that in roundy rounder racing though, no?

What a senseless event that should not have occurred at all. I cannot see how this will end well for TS. He may not get formally charged, but his life will be forever changed I have to believe. I feel really bad for the family of that young driver.

Not trying to defend him (Tony) but the other driver should never have got out of his car. That and the fact that his driving suit was black and matched the paint job of his car would have made him very hard to see. Couple that with a dimly lit track and it is unfortunate the results

Looks like at least manslaughter to me and I don't see how racing today will help his case any.

Sad to hear. ...
But another example of why I don't watch circle track/nascar racing. .....everyone wants to play the tough guy. ... And people get killed.....

Ward should not have exited his car.
Ward should not have walked into the traffic.
From his actions and posturing in the video, he was clearly looking for a fight, and he found one.

Several people seem to think TS did this on purpose, with nothing to back their position other than a desire to see a celebrity fall.

I seriously doubt he was coming around the turn thinking, "Hey.... I think I'll kill this guy."

A quick glance at my FB and MC racing forums and I find that my fellow two wheel guys are of the mind that you get the eff away from a track not walk out onto it. A MC racer getting hit or run over is not a uncommon event, so we know enough to get off the fkin track.
RIP racer

Not racing today.

Stewart will not be racing today it was just announced.

Smart move.

Stewart's back wheel goes to the left, away from the guy. He must have hit him with the front?

According to reports, the first guy in line had to swerve to miss the fella....notice his the fancy footwork. Tony was a second or two behind ....oops.
Plenty of mis-judgement to go around......kind of a dumb & dumber deal.

Sorry for the loss. If indeed it was intentional, that is just wrong.

But if you've been racing since four, wouldn't you know by now to stay off a hot track?

Going to be one hell of a civil suit.

My thoughts also. Tragic all the way around though. As others have said, just a waste...

I can't imagine in IMSA Professional Sports Car Racing, ever seeing a driver climb out of his car after an altercation and entering a traffic filled track to "express" his "disapproval"!!! Sure, I can see some fist waiving or finger pointing from the grass or track sidelines, but nothing like this!!!! Different mindset...different strokes, I guess!

Man Vs. Race car on hot track = bad things!!! Man punching other man in face in the pits = better chance of living!

The guy was wearing black on a poorly lit track. I just read a story from a guy who had driven those cars. He said that he gunned it because that's how you turn those cars quickly.. Look at the video and how the wheels turned. Looks to me like he saw him late and gunned it to get the rear end back over as to not hit him. (one theory anyway)

That's exactly the way I see it - I kept waiting for him to take just a step or two and stop but by late in second 33 if you pause you can see he's walked most of the way across the track. There's barely over a second between the blue/white car and Stewart's. He got lucky the first car missed but not so much with the second.

I have a hard time seeing this as intentional but that won't stop an attorney. IMO it'll end up a civil matter only with no criminal charges pressed.

TS will not be charged. You don't walk out onto the track and all the BS about TS "trying to spray him with dirt" is just that. It doesn't matter how you feel about hot headed Stewart, there is no way a criminal or civil suite is going anywhere.

Just a thought from someone who has driven a winged dirt car. Look at the video and notice the position of the wing end plate on the right side of the car...it goes below the line of sight of the driver. In a dirt car you are always looking left and the cars are designed to turn left. One way to get a car to go left is with the throttle. It is possible that TS never saw the guy at all.

An additional thought....confirming the restricted visibility, notice how Ward had to bend down in order to see TS to express his displeasure?
Shouldn't have happened and wouldn't have had Ward stayed out of the driving line.