Well this can't be good for Tony Stewarts career.

[oldschoolsdime92]

I saw a story that said Stewart had a GoPro in his car. If that is true then that should help clear up the question of what he could and could not see.

 

I disagree with this, because often times depending where his camera is mounted, Theres alot that the camera can see but not the driver. For example. Heres a go pro video I took last night. The driver isn't even able to fully turn his head due to his hans device head restraint. If you watch, he gets into the wall , and he had no idea he was that close to the wall, due to visibility. 

Edited August 10, 2014 by oldschoolsdime92

[smashweights]

Hot-head dumb fuck walks into the middle of the track. Bad decision ends badly.

 

Agreed, sadly. Dude almost got hit by the blue/white car and doesn't use that as his sign.  Plus, if you look when the blue/white car misses him, there's maybe 1.5 car widths worth of track below the kid and no one can go above him, not a lot of room to avoid.  The fact that the blue/white car almost hit him as well should be enough to show that he was hard to see and difficult to avoid and there was no intent here.

[M_Quick]

To soon...

[Tpoppa]

I am curios to see how the waiver is worded for that racing series.  I wonder if it's enough to prevent legal action.

[MidgetTodd]

Legal action, yes. Civil action, no.

[redkow97]

You can argue anything either way, but the term "contributory negligence" is echoing in my head.

Basically the theory is that being super dumb makes other parties less culpable. Like if I run across a highway, my wife can sue whoever hits me, but she shouldn't win when I'm the moron.

[MidgetTodd]

Like the old lady that spilled hot coffee on her vag from McDs shouldn't have won

I really do wonder about our legal system sometimes

[Tpoppa]

Like the old lady that spilled hot coffee on her vag from McDs shouldn't have won

I really do wonder about our legal system sometimes

As much as that story sounded like bullshit, she was actually injured.  $$ may have been out of whack, but it's an interesting read.

[M_Quick]

Yeah and wasn't it the girls fault that park her car in the road to save the ducks

[Tpoppa]

You can argue anything either way, but the term "contributory negligence" is echoing in my head.

Basically the theory is that being super dumb makes other parties less culpable. Like if I run across a highway, my wife can sue whoever hits me, but she shouldn't win when I'm the moron.

That's pretty much what I was thinking.  You can argue what TS should or shouldn't have done.  If the guy didn't run toward Stewart's car he would still be here today.

 

If there is a law suit, my guess is it's settled quickly out of court.

[Josh1234]

Who the hell gets out of their car on a freaking race track and runs to the middle of it with cars flying by?

 

 

Maybe if a few more hotheads get run over you won't have so many idiots trying to play live action frogger on the racetrack. You don't see motogp riders run around on the track. You wouldn't do it on the highway if you got in a wreck. Why do it on the dirt track. Sucks that it happened but the dude got exactly what he had coming for him for acting like a moron.

 

+2

[M_Quick]

I'm sure Zippy of SHR will offer cash to the family, before any legal action takes place.

Edited August 11, 2014 by M_Quick

[J_Copeland]

Tony Stewart was doing his job. He was racing a car. It's a closed course for a reason. He shouldn't be on the lookout for random drivers taking a stroll. He's racing a car... period.

He wasn't doing his job!

His job is owning,racing at SHR !

I've met TS in person,real nice guy,but I've heard that he's NOT the guy you want to mess with on the track !

But leaving your car on track is just crazy !

[Bakemono]

Looks to me like just a really unfortunate accident.  You could easily fault Ward for running out to confront Stewart like that.  Im not at all a Tony Stewart fan, I cant stand the guy but it would be a pretty bit stretch to call that one murder, especially premeditated murder.

It will be interesting to see how it all plays out.  I have a hard time seeing them pin vehicular manslaughter or 2nd degree murder on him, unless we see a better video that clearly shows Stewart trying to hit Ward.

[MidgetTodd]

It was self defense plain and simple.

[Tpoppa]

I agree with this article for the most part.  

 

http://www.si.com/racing/2014/08/10/tony-stewart-kevin-ward-dead-accident

 

A sleepless Saturday night has been followed by a frazzled Sunday. You see things and you can’t unsee them. Watching video from Saturday’s sprint car race at Canandaigua Motorsports Park, where a car driven by three-time Sprint Cup champion Tony Stewart struck and killed fellow driver Kevin Ward Jr., left too many troubling images and questions.

 

Seeing a young man climb out of his car, knowing he was in the final minutes of his life, is disturbing. Seeing him tossed like a rag doll after the contact is nauseating.

 

Tossing the questions around in ones head is unsettling and it will remain that way for a long time. There will never be answers to most of them. The one thing that’s certain is Ward, only 20, is dead and there’s absolutely no reason for that to be the case.

 

As harsh as it sounds, as hard as it is to write, Ward has some culpability here. He was angry after a wreck put his car into the wall of the dirt track in upstate New York. He got out of the car looking, it appeared, to confront someone.

 

He’s not the first angry driver to get out of his car. Stewart, in fact, has done it. Ward won’t be the last. It is never a good idea and that’s a key question that will hang forever. Why? Why not just stay put?

 

But he didn’t, and that leads to a much bigger and much more disturbing question. Was the contact between Stewart’s car and Ward unavoidable or was there some malice behind it?

 

Stewart’s reputation as a hothead precedes him here. As a driver, he’s as talented as anyone in any category of racing. He may be the best pure driver in history.

 

He’s also had his share of run-ins with officials, the media and other drivers.

 

Had this been Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson or Dale Earnhardt Jr. involved, it would have been so much easier to chalk it up as a tragedy without the additional questions.

Put Stewart in this situation and he’s like a batter down 0-2 in the count against Clayton Kershaw. It doesn’t look good. Stewart’s past actions have put him in a spot where his motives will be questioned, fair or not.

 

Before anyone gets too carried away, let’s be clear there’s no way anyone should be thinking Stewart had it in mind to kill Ward or even injure him. No way, no how.

But given his history and the way he has reacted to situations throughout his career, it is not at all unreasonable to wonder if he wasn’t thinking of scaring or intimidating Ward.

 

The video that came out several hours after the wreck doesn’t make those questions go away. It reinforces them.

Bob Pockrass, the veteran and respected motorsports writer for The Sporting News, located a witness in the stands several hours before the video surfaced. The witness, a driver named Tyler Graves, described the scene as it unfolded in a way the video corroborated. Graves noted that when you hit the throttle in a sprint car, it “sets sideways.”

Now listen to the video of the incident. Right before contact, an engine guns. Stewart’s? No way to be sure, but as Graves noted and the video shows, the car “set sideways” and hit Ward.

 

Graves doesn’t buy the notion that Stewart couldn’t see Ward. Despite the shaky quality of the lighting and the dark firesuit Ward was wearing, he’s clearly visible in the video and several cars went by him without incident.

 

Why would you punch the throttle under caution?

 

So many questions, so many answers that likely will never come.

 

Ward’s family is left to deal with the pain of his loss and enough questions of their own. Stewart, who authorities say is cooperating with the investigation and not facing criminal charges at this time, will surely have some disturbing thoughts in his head the rest of his life.

 

Stewart wisely withdrew from Sunday’s race at Watkins Glen – his call or someone else’s? – and issued an appropriate statement expressing sympathy for Ward’s family and sadness over the accident. It would be nice to think, without the questions, that it was just that: a terrible accident with an unfortunate result.

 

Only Stewart knows for sure what he was thinking in the moments before impact. The rest of us are left to wonder.

[bandit12]

I know this is at speed but you can still see the blind spots from the drivers seat of a sprint car, when whole cars disappear so could a person. 

It's truly a sad situation for all involved.

 

Edited August 11, 2014 by bandit12

[madcat6183]

Looks about as accidental as could be. Stewart had his front wheels turned left and goosed the throttle to redirect the car at the last second when he finally saw the young hothead on the track. Those cars don't turn that well with only steering input. It's tacky dirt, a quick tap of the throttle breaks the rear end and turns the car much quicker than a steering input.

I really didn't see a problem with the pass that put the kid into the wall. Tony was doing a slide job to take position. If the boy wanted to try to race Tony it's his choice, but in this case Tony made the pass, it was the boys responsibility to yield at that point.

In the outlaws series, all those guys do that all the time, you take your chances trying to race someone on the outside when they've put a slide job on you.

Overall, very poor decision by the young guy to get out of the car. I've spent many many years at dirt tracks watching my dad race, watching the all stars, the outlaws, etc...It's rare to see guys get out of the car. But some do, everyone has a breaking point with their tempers. Most are smart enough to get within a throw of the helmet, not stand in front of oncoming traffic.

Edit: it should be noted also, Sprint cars aren't like NASCAR, they don't have mirrors or spotters or any assistance in knowing if they are clear or not. Tony had slow traffic on the inside of the track, was making the pass on the guy and wouldn't have known that he wasn't clear of him as he slid up the track. That responsibility goes on the driver being passed, either yield position or get put in the wall...he chose the wall and then got an attitude over his poor choice.

I m on the dirt racing forums a lot more than OR anymore, but can't even post about this event there because it's so full of BS and just stupid comments.  Anyways a lot of the guys here know I sold off my bike to get back to the dirt track races more frequently and help our driver out more than I had been. 

 

With that said this post is pretty accurate, and honestly, unless you've been around dirt cars, sprints, late models, and even Emods with big blocks, you really don't have much to go on regarding how they operate compared to a normal car, bike, or whatever.  They are totally different, steering is totally different and done anywhere from 60-80% by the throttle, they don't have multi gear boxes, they are direct drive, low and high only, they don't run "normal" tires the right rear is always staggered vs the left rear and usually wider to make a larger contact patch with the track, the list goes on.

 

 On top of that, the track changes, often.  1 lap the track may be tacky in an area, the next lap it may be dry slick, hard to tell until you get there.  Lighting at these places obviously sucks as they aren't nascar tracks or anything like them, granted you can easily see dude from the stands, that doesn't mean you can inside the car.  HANS, the fact that the wing goes down almost below drivers eye line on the right side of the car, all play into it.

 

 I've met Tony a lot of times, we've raced him when he was running late models at Eldora, I've drank beer with him at the Miss. Eldora contest, I've been going to his track for 10 years now, and know that he would never "use the car as a weapon" and hit someone intentionally.

 

 I also know 100% that he won't just sit back and have someone point fingers at him and come at him.  I along with several people who know him better than I do, who I've talked to know he goosed the engine to dust Ward off, keep him in "check" if you will.  LM, Sprinters, Emods, all do it anytime someone goes after them on the track, usually this doesn't happen, but I have seen people hit with the rear quarter of a late model, difference is the tire is covered by the sheet metal at that speed, obviously not in a Sprinter.

 

 Unfortunately for Tony, it ended all wrong and isn't going to be done and over with anytime soon.  Sure we all sign the waivers blah blah, but that means very little this day and age, as the Midget brought up about the McD's coffee lady winning her mil or whatever.  

 

 I feel awful for the Ward family but we also are told in EVERY drivers meeting to never leave your car unless you're on fire or the car is melting for some other reason, or covered in fuel.  That's about the only reasons to get out, and unfortunately for Ward Jr. he decided to take his fate in his own hands when he did.  Now Tony shouldn't have tried to dust him off, but they all do that in every level of racing.

 

Really a terrible situation, and I am guessing a lot of dirt tracks will be looking into their policies a little more about this from here out.

[M_Quick]

Wow if you think he gassed it up to roost the guy, imo that would put T.S. at fault. As I viewed it, car in front of Tony was blocking his view. Blue and white car swerves at last minute to avoid Ward. Then Tony saw him and turned wheel and use the throttle to help his sprint car turn not to roost the innocent guy standing there . But that's just my opinion.

[Steve Butters]

I think he was talking about the initial wreck where TS put the guy into the wall

[redkow97]

Not to get too off topic, but the McDonald's coffee lady is not a typical legal scenario.

 

I expect Kevin ward's family to sue, and I expect Tony Stewart to settle, rather than have this fiasco drag on for months or longer.  That doesn't mean he necessarily did anything wrong. 

 

All I know is that the video LOOKS really bad. 

[madcat6183]

Not to get too off topic, but the McDonald's coffee lady is not a typical legal scenario.

 

I expect Kevin ward's family to sue, and I expect Tony Stewart to settle, rather than have this fiasco drag on for months or longer.  That doesn't mean he necessarily did anything wrong. 

 

All I know is that the video LOOKS really bad. 

Agreed totally.  However that McDs lady won is still beyond me, but whatever. 

 

FWIW I wasn't trying to insult anyone on OR, the other forums I frequent and the news stations and even ESPN are driving me nuts though with lack of knowledge.  The dirt track community is a pretty tight knit, small community, and there's just a ton of bad info out there. 

 

In the end, it sucks for everyone. 

[Josh1234]

Agreed totally.  However that McDs lady won is still beyond me, but whatever. 

 

 

There are lots of relevant details that most people don't know.  I read this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liebeck_v._McDonald's_Restaurants

and I feel her lawsuit had merit. The amount she was awarded was decided by a jury(and based on McDonald's coffee sales).  She started off asking for a very reasonable amount, and it's obvious she was seriously affected by the burn.  (Skin grafts, serious weight loss from her hospital stay, and it was an old lady).  The car didn't have cup holders, and she was stopped, and she was a passenger.  The cup deformed.  Didn't help that she was an old lady and was wearing sweatpants.

[magley64]

If he hit the throttle to try to scare the kid, then he's partially responsible. If he throttled to avoid him, then no.

Who can say which he actually did? Only him, and he has to live with it.

[Tpoppa]

Has anyone ever been criminally charged for on track activity?

 

List of NASCAR related fatalities:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_NASCAR_fatal_accidents