Will this be the end of Tony Stewarts racing career?
 

I don't follow racing that closely but what a tragedy.

http://www.ksl.com/?sid=31077592&nid...from-the-track

The collision was as common as any in racing. Kevin Ward Jr.'s car spun twice like a top, wheels hugging the wall, before it plopped backward on the dimly lit dirt track.

In a sport steeped with bravado, what happened next was another familiar, but treacherous, move: Wearing a black firesuit and black helmet, the 20-year-old Ward unbuckled himself, climbed out of the winged car into the night and defiantly walked onto the track at Canandaigua Motorsports Park.

He gestured, making his disgust evident with the driver who triggered the wreck with a bump: three-time NASCAR champion Tony Stewart.

I saw the footage earlier.

Pedestrian vs. sprint car.

In this case, pedestrian didn't have the right-of-way.

Shouldn't be a career-ender for Tony Stewart. He wasn't to blame.

A career ender for Ward, not Stewart

no its def not going to cause tony to retire. Not in his personality.

its not even his fault it happened. dumbass ran onto the track & put himself in danger.

:Oh crap

Can someone clue in on what happened a little bit more here?

He seems to be pointing at one car (I assume Stewart) before he appears to be clipped by the rear wing of said car, he then gets hit by another car and is clearly killed.

Am I seeing the video right?

There seems to be a lot of mentions for Tony Stewart, either he clipped him and another car killed him, or he was the guy in the car that killed him, in which case he wouldn't have seen him IMO.

The driver of the #13 car that spun (Ward) was struck and thrown by the right rear tire of Tony Stewart's #14 car after Ward walked onto the track to confront Stewart. Stewart didn't have much time to react as the car in front of him may have blocked his view until it swerved to avoid Ward.

A poorly lit racetrack, unexpected person on foot and limited time to react was the cause from what I've seen and heard.

Although Stewart chose not to race today I do not expect that this will be the end of his career at all.

Why was Tony Stewart racing in some podunk poorly lit dirt track race?

It seems like this is a situation where has nothing at all to gain and a hell of a lot to lose.

Its a hobby of his he says.

http://www.ksl.com/?sid=31077592&nid...from-the-track
"Everybody has hobbies," he said last month, adding that "there are a lot of other things I could be doing that are a lot more dangerous and a lot bigger waste of time with my time off do than doing that."

I read earlier that he blipped the throttle to throw dirt on or scare the driver on the track... So if that is true, he does have to take some responsibility for it.

For sure could be the end of Stewart's "hobby" racing

Whether it was intentional or not, Kevin Ward is at fault for puffing his chest on a race track with thousands of pounds of metal whizzing by. Whose to say Stewart clipped him on purpose? Only he will ever know.

Stewart's my favorite driver. That being said I have never been a fan of "slumming it" in auto racing. By this I mean racing against the general public at small tracks. Stewart and others show up at these races with unlimited budgets, advanced skill levels in driving and full-time professional mechanics.



http://s30.postimg.org/ets16kbdd/nas...in_ward_jr.jpg


Kevin's World; Kevin Ward, aspiring cart and dirt track racer primarily sponsored by the family's local painting business, Westward Painting Co.

http://s30.postimg.org/a5lvw8xsh/dir...120519_031.jpg


Tony's World; Tony Stewart, Former Indy Car Racing Champion and 3 time NASCAR champ.
Stewart-Haas Racing has almost a $100,000,000 per year in revenue. Gene Haas his racing partner and financial backer is sole owner of Haas Automation a world leader in machine tools with 2012 revenue just shy of One Billion Dollars.

Tony, 3 time NASCAR Champ.
http://s23.postimg.org/4ixi7ybff/start_small.jpg

Tony, Indy Car Champ.
http://s27.postimg.org/41zkbqwlf/132010_650_366.jpg


Stewart and others race on dirt tracks as a hobby or for fun between their super-speedway NASCAR races. What could go wrong mixing the two, right? And from a competitive point of view if Stewart wins at a dirt track so what, he should have.


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The guy was an idiot. He was basically jumping in front of the cars. Its not like he just stepped out of the car and gor clipped, he was prancing around in the middle of the track like he wanted to fight the cars.

A real tragedy regardless of fault.Stupid moves by both

The ironic thing, is Stewart has done the same thing. He's walked out after a crash and thrown his helmet at another car.

But he didnt do it standing in the middle of the track.

He threw his helmet at Matt Kenseth who was driving under 50 mph in the pit-road area during a caution. Stewart never went on the track.

Wrong.. Last year he missed several weeks of NASCAR races cause he broke his leg in a sprint car. He loves dirt track racing cause he loves the real racing it brings..

I grew up going to dirt track sprint car racing every Saturday night.. If you have never seen a dirt track race you wouldn't understand this..

This kid wanted his 15 min of fame by walking in the middle of the track and calling out a big name.. Problem is on the dirt these cars slide around..

Call me crazy, but if you have millions of dollars and potentially dozens if not hundreds of people relying on you each week, you should probably pick a hobby that has a lot less chance of you getting seriously hurt, killed or involved in something that could cause a major disruption in that.

:thumbsup … Something I should have said in my post about why mixing pro/locals isn't a good fit.


I've been to many, many short/dirt tracks and the racing is great. I've also been to a track that Stewart owns, Eldora Speedway, and watched him race. Yea it's fun to watch but I still feel pro's don't mix well. Same as having Miguel Cabrera on your local baseball team.


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Been told that Stewart has wrecked 3 times before on this track, but then again, the idea of what this kid did is compared to playing on the freeway.

Stewart represents a company, that company has to keep going, it will not stop because of one idiot!

Looks like he swerved... The whole thing totally sucks for everyone involved. I did wonder what the fuck type of race this was when I saw the clip.

What's the lesson here?

I love this thread.

If you are a race car driver and get into a wreck...don't get out of your fucking car and walk into traffic of oncoming race cars, especially if you're pissed off at one of them.

maybe. but what happened was a fluke, & frankly given how kevin ran onto the track, & another car had to avoid him, it coulda been anybody who ran over this kid.

pro race car drivers have it in their blood, no different than any other pro athlete. telling them to not do their passion on the side, just to avoid a 1 in a million shot, is not gonna fly with stewarts personality type.

an incident like this though will certainly cause debate by sponsors as to whether the risk of these side races are worth the trouble.

i don't think it'll be the end for stewart. Although I'm sure he's got enough money to retire now but he won't. i could see him giving up the sprint cars though,thats not his cash cow anyway.he'll probably end up commentating for the sprint circuit here and there.Ultimately it sure looks like it was the pedestrians fault,so in that case i see no reason for him to be kicked out or retire from racing all together.

It's a recipe for a disaster. You should not un buckle and rant in the track. Wait for him in the pit and do a fist fight there.

It's a tragedy that a young guy lost his life this way but he was an idiot, he got out of his car to confront a big time driver to try and get some more fame, he was dressed in all black on a badly lit track on a bend, madness in my opinion. Regardless of everyone saying this drivers career won't be over, this is going to have an effect on him, he won't be the same person ever again.

no.. we all know. because he's not a psychotic fuck...

One of these days Stewart will throw his helmet at a car and it will bounce back knocking his head clean off.

Team owner came out early yeaterday and said it's business as usual for the team and tony will race. They later retracted that and sat steart out after nascar reps had a chitty chat with them about how they might want to pause.

Fucked up situation no doubt about that.

Tony is the team owner. He and Gene Haas are the owners of Stewart-Haas racing.

:thumbsup:thumbsup:thumbsup

You read eye witness testimony which is notoriously inaccurate. The sound was more likely coming from a car directly in front of the person holding the camera.

I also saw a witness say that it looked like he was going to roost the guy with dirt and got out of shape and instead ran him over. People who watch this series like clockwork would know how common that is, or isn't. I dunno. Never liked Stewart much as a driver because he's a notorious hothead who needs a day or two to calm down after a stubbed toe.

Why should he stop. It is a dangerous sport and there is always chances of deadly accident. If the kid hadn't walked on the road like he did he'd most probably still be alive.

A real bad situation all the way around.

Track promoters/owners pay for big names to appear and race at their tracks. It helps them draw larger then normal crowds and often gets them TV time they would not get.

Tony left Joe Gibbs Racing to be able to do his hobby racing without contractual issues and to get back under the GM banner.

He missed almost half the big money NASCAR Cup season because of a injury (leg) sustained a hobby racing incident. The hobby racing Tony does now he did before IndyCar or NASCAR racing became a factor in his life. He owns several race teams, including Sprint Car Teams, and as L-Pink mentioned 1 of the crown jewel tracks in Dirt and Sprint car racing Eldora Speedway.

Anyone that thinks this was a anything but a terrible accident needs to re-evaluate the incident and the Tony's background, this is a guy that buys safety equipment for Police and Rescue animals as 1 of his charities. A fierce competitor, but also a outstanding philanthropist.

Will this change his plans for future events? Maybe. Will it end his career as a racer? I doubt it.

Condolences to the Family and Friends of Kevin Ward Jr.

Lost in all this was the first Top Tier win for A.J. Allmendinger who had been suspended from NASCAR for a failed Drug Test a couple of years ago and went through the Sports Road to Recovery program. It was also the first win at the Top Tier level for his crew and car owners and qualifies him for the Championship Chase (play-offs).

^^^^^ This. All of it. :thumbsup