Multitude of things possible. I'm not even sure what positions they were racing for, but it was a typical slide job. Happens every corner of every lap at every sprint car dirt track. Most times they're clean, sometimes you get pinched off a bit as it looked here and other times you're flat bumped out of the way, as it didn't appear to be in this case. They could have had contact at other points earlier in the race or the heats. Not sure if this was the feature or not. These local dirt trackers race every weekend for series points and you get guys like Stewart and a lot of other guys that like to moonlight on local dirt tracks near where their big race that weekend is. Nothing wrong with it, tickets sell when high profile drivers make appearances. Counter to that is local guys get mad when rich teams come in and take their money and muck up the points. It's not always just about racing for the win that night. He lost money, points and damaged his car to a moonlighter. Nobody will know why he was as upset as he was, just as nobody will ever know what Stewart did or did not see and do at that instant. Everything, including my opinion, is coming off from known incidents with Stewart over the years and a crappy video. The only thing everyone agrees on is that it was not a wise choice to get out of the car, but it happens at just about every circuit out there. Often times in the bigger circuits the laps are long enough that under caution safety crews have already gotten on scene as the field comes back around and help to keep them in check. Not so much the case at the 1/8 mile dirt tracks. It's unfortunate, and until the lawyers give Stewart the go ahead to speak publicly and give his take we won't know any other part of the story than what is out there now being analyzed to death.
Watched the video in slow motion. Doesn't look good for ts. I've been to enough sprint races to know that at caution speeds you. Don't need to be high on the track and throttle into the curve. I think he was probably trying to scare the kid and it got out of control. You can see the kid jumping away from the car as the rear comes at him. Poor judgment on the kids part, absolutely. Poor judgment on ts part, absolutely. I don't think he could be charged with acting wantonly, but depending on what other witnesses and evidence is available a manslaughter charge wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility i.e his serous negligence/recklessness resulted in a death. It all depends on the states specific elements.
These pro drivers can handle cars like a fine musician plays an instrument. He knew what he was doing but I'm sure he didn't want to off a 20 year old.
After watching the video again tonight in slo mo I see that Tony came into him slightly sideways like sprint cars do coming out of the corner. IMO he throttled the car to straighten the car out so he wouldn't keep sliding sideways more into him.
Paying money won't make anything better, or at least shouldn't. It's not going to bring the kid back or help the family feel any better. From what I've seen the racing media is calling this a tragic accident and not placing blame on anyone involved. Although the networks won't let them comment with their personal opinion I'm sure. The local Sheriff's Office is still investigating and has yet to do anything more. My hunch is that is all they will do and nothing criminally will come of it. Civil court is a whole nether animal and won't even go there. After all is said and done, the only thing that can be changed is rules about drivers getting out of their vehicles and awareness of other drivers. It's become common place and the fans feed on it when 2 drives are pissed at each other. We've all see the guys get our of their cars, throw helmets, Kurt Busch spanking his back side telling Jimmy Spencer to kiss his ***. In fact this incident I just mentioned is almost a carbon copy of the Stewart / Ward incident if you've seen it. Obviously minus the horrific accident. After watching the video on youtube I don't even think Stewart's car ever came into contact with Ward's. Everything is smooth with the cars until Ward contacts the wall and spins around. You will usually see the cars get jared in some fashion when they contact each other. Stewart slid up the track and Ward went to the high side to avoid the contact. Purely from a racing perspective, Ward didn't have much to be really mad at. I just hope in the end some rules are changed about drivers exiting their cars in all forms of auto racing. As well I hope Ward's family and Stewart can get though this. There are a lot of sleepless nights coming for all of them in the future.
Speaking of how fans react.... Anyone remember how the fans acted when Jeff Gordon won a while back at Talladega? All those Dale Jr. fans thought Jr. got robbed of the win and they threw literally everything in the stands that wasn't bolted down at Jeff Gordon when they handed him the checkered flag. The flag official at the start/finish line got hit with an Igloo cooler! Tell me fans don't feed on drivers not liking each other and the building drama. And a couple years ago, I though Brad Keslowski's father was gonna put a hit out on Carl Edwards for wrecking his son intentionally. Anyway, my point is drivers feed off this as well and when they see the big boys show their emotions on the track, they do the same thing. Just like any other kid mimics his favorite athlete.
A wise sponsor to our racecar always tells us - Racing is 50% your fault no matter what happens because you agreed to race them.
