Post: #1

Forget ESPN on this one....get the full coverage from Deadspin...

Quote:NASCAR driver Tony Stewart ran over a competitor, 20-year-old Kevin Ward Jr., during a confrontation at a sprint car race on Saturday night at Canandaigua Motorsports Park in New York. Ward was killed.

In the video above, via YouTube, you can see Ward apparently confronting Stewart on foot after Ward's car is run into the wall. He is struck, dragged, then thrown a number of feet. According to Ontario County Sheriff Philip C. Povero, Ward was dead on arrival at the hospital.

http://deadspin.com/reports-tony-stewart...1618893708

What kind of charges should this guy be looking at?

Post: #2

Unsportsmanlike Conduct

Post: #3

Whoa. The developments in the week to come will be interesting. I don't think it would give Nascar a black eye because it was some other kind of racing, but it is still very sad to see this from a Nascar driver.

Post: #4

Dude in the black car had another car right in front of him, I doubt he saw the guy on track. Why was the race still going after the accident? Why did the dude run around the track?

Post: #5

Manslaughter at most. From what I've read, he probably lost his temper ( something he's known for) and meant to throw up dirt on the guy as he passed him. I don't think he had any intention of clipping him. His money might keep him out of jail but I don't see how his career continues after this.

Post: #6

This is new York. Do they have vehicular manslaughter? Or would it just be a manslaughter charge? I guess the facts of the case will determine that. I wonder if murder will be harder to prove because the guy ran out to get in front of or hit at Tonys car.

Post: #7

Stupid move jumping out and walking around in the middle of a car race track.

Post: #8

Looks to me like he walked straight out in front of him.

Post: #9

It's hard to tell from the video. I do agree. Why would you get out of the car on the rack?

Post: #10

As a general rule, no matter how much you feel you were wronged, confronting, on foot, a man in a 5,000 pound piece of steel coming at you at hundreds of MPH, is a losing proposition. YMMV.

Post: #11

(08-10-2014 12:11 PM)The Father Wrote:  As a general rule, no matter how much you feel you were wronged, confronting, on foot, a man in a 5,000 pound piece of steel coming at you at hundreds of MPH, is a losing proposition. YMMV.

Darwin Award candidate?

Post: #12

(08-10-2014 12:11 PM)The Father Wrote:  As a general rule, no matter how much you feel you were wronged, confronting, on foot, a man in a 5,000 pound piece of steel coming at you at hundreds of MPH, is a losing proposition. YMMV.

People tend to forget the term "dead right".

You may be right, but you're dead. Looks like he clearly walked in front of the vehicle. What can you do driving 100+ mph? Swerve to avoid the guy and damange your car and yourself? I'd hit him square on if it was me. Sad accident, but a car is higher on the pedestrian food chain.

Post: #13

He should walk from any charges. Will cost him a fortune, though. He was driving a midget car with on a dirt track at night while wearing a visibility reducing helmet and an angry idiot walked in front of him. Notice that the deceased almost got nailed by the car right before Tony's car hit him. You can't expect any person, including a professional driver, to avoid what he cannot see.

The prosecution will make note of the sound of an engine revving right before he was hit, but that could also be Stewart trying to avoid the collision at the last second. Looks like Stewart immediately pulled over as well.

In my opinion, the people don't have enough to convict on any charge. That being said, people have been convicted for less. If they do decide to prosecute, I bet they charge with Murder.

Post: #14

I watched the deadspin video once and said to myself, "WTF he drove into that dude?!"

That was my initial reaction, and that should scare the shit out of this Stewart guy. I don't know the first thing about car racing and won't pretend I do, but I think I've got a pretty rational brain. Don't walk into the street, but don't run over the guy that does.

Now, sometimes life happens so fast that you don't realize what happens until it happens, and I think that was the case here.

Post: #15

I doubt he even saw him before it was too late. Why would he be looking oblique right to his direction of movement? He's in the middle of a race, not sightseeing; he was looking at his line. As someone else said it's night and the dude he hit was wearing black, and from Stewart's point of view he may have been standing with his very-similar-colored car directly behind him so he blended right in to the background. I'll revise my opinion when someone shows me a better angle that makes it clear Tony Stewart altered his course toward Kevin Ward Jr. That split second we see is worthless for determining what happened.

This seems a clear case of "play stupid games, win stupid prizes". Who lunges into oncoming traffic because his feelings are hurt? What a fucking idiot. If Kevin Ward Jr hadn't been killed he should've been suspended and fined, if not outright banned from racing for walking into traffic and putting other drivers at risk.

Post: #16

Seems like a dumb hot headed kid. I don't know much about Stewart except that he is a very aggressive driver. This kid should have just taken his licks from a veteran. But instead his pride and arrogance killed him. What sane person runs in the middle of a race track like that? What was he thinking?

Condolences to all involved, it is a sad situation. It is a shame this kid's mistake had to be one that killed him. But life isn't fair.

Post: #17

Give him 20, he knew what he was doing

Post: #18

Irrational emotions took over rational thought and made this guy walk onto an active race circuit to verbally berate and try to stop (??) Stewart. Not sure how this is anything but Ward's fault.

The video is a MUST SEE because the written narratives of this incident paint an image of the original collision and accident occurring, Ward confronting Stewart in his car, and Stewart running the guy over. Its what I thought before viewing the video and its clearly not the case.

Post: #19

^

Yeah, what I visualized before I watched the video was Stewart stopped, with Ward Jr yelling at him, and then Stewart taking off from a stop to run him over. Obviously what actually happened was quite different.

Post: #20

Experts are saying that he intended to swipe him with the rear tyre as these cars go sideways once the power is on. He wasn't in front of the car exactly.

Post: #21

The biggest problem Stewart has here is his own history as a hot head. Without even seeing the video last night, my first reaction was "who was dumb enough to go and piss off Stewart?" While he's mellowed some oer this last few years now that he owns his own race team, the first thing I think of when I think of Stewart is him ramming Jeff Gordon's car on pit row back in 1999 after Gordon made contact in a turn.

Given that a year ago, Stewart broke his leg in a similar race to this, I won't be surprised if NASCAR goes after him to quit the extracurricular racing. No clue what criminal an possible civil charges could come up.

Post: #22

I counted five cars having passed Ward after he stepped out onto the track before Stewart (the sixth) hit him. In fact, the one just before Ward hits him came perilously close.

Ward is entirely at fault here. He could just have easily been hit by any other of the racers, people who had nothing to do with the fight between he and Stewart. He showed zero regard for any of the other racers by walking out onto the track and acting like a tough guy.

Post: #23

It wasn't 'race mode,' the initial incident caused a caution and the cars were not going full tilt by the time Ward got out of his car. Was it dumb for him to wander onto the track like that? Yes. But all the drivers who passed by Ward would have seen him, as slowing down for the caution they were just cruising around, locating where the wreck was. Stewart knew full well what he was doing. In my view he didn't intend to actually hit Ward, only give him a fright or spray dirt his face, which is why he hit the throttle to spin his car out even though they were under a caution. Stewart has been on Ward's end a few times before.





Ultimately Stewart is going to be in some big shit because he clearly sped up when it wasn't warranted, but even still he was only going about 40mph. I don't really see it as a Darwin Award from Wards end because he could have reasonably expected not to be hit or driven at aggressively by fellow professionals who could easily see him driving at low speed. Bottom line is Stewart could have easily driven by like everyone else but didn't.

Post: #24

(08-10-2014 05:10 PM)Dismal Operator Wrote:  Bottom line is Stewart could have easily driven by like everyone else but didn't.

He was at the top of the track when everyone else went past. He waited for Stewart then put himself in front of his car.

Post: #25

It seems like it was truly an accident, though. I doubt that he did it for "unsportsmanlike conduct" or "during a confrontation". It seems like a tragic unfortunate accident.