Posted on 08/11/2014 6:27:28 AM PDT by shortstop
When you mix anger, hotheads and high-octane fuel, you sometimes get trouble.
In Canandaigua on Saturday night, you also got tragedy.
A 20-year-old phenom, pushed up against the wall by one of the biggest men in NASCAR, wrestled himself out of his bunged up car and stormed down the track to confront the man he felt had done him wrong.
It was high-bank dirt and small-town dreams and a kid with a helmet and some coveralls and cars coming by under a yellow flag. He walked into the traffic lane and one came past and then it was the big man and he raised his hand to flip him off and a foot or two outside the path of the front wheel he made his stand.
But the back end cut loose and swung wide and the big rear tire came over him and hung him up and then threw him far and lifeless back onto the bank.
That’s how Kevin Ward Jr. lost his life and Tony Stewart lost his peace of mind.
And maybe his career and maybe his freedom.
Because the press conferences are being held by the sheriff, not track officials, and every angle of every cellphone video is being scrutinized by people who know physics, racing and the laws of the state of New York.
And the most ominous report in the press is the claim that spectators could hear Tony Stewart’s engine rev as he approached Kevin Ward Jr. Did they miss hear? Was he trying to get traction to cut left and avoid the kid? Or was he trying to scare the younger man, maybe spray him with mud as he passed, do something in some way to stand up to this impertinent, wet-behind-the-ears, backwoods rookie daring to walk across the track and flip off a three-time NASCAR champ?
Was it stupid plus stupid equals a horror no one could imagine?
Did the impetuous decision to get out of a crumpled car on an active track combine with the impetuous decision to brush by an angry competitor leave a young man dead and the race world questioning itself?
Or did a kid too young to buy a beer simply misjudge and walk into the arc of a passing racer?
The investigators will have to decide.
The investigators and everybody who squinted into their phones yesterday watching the YouTube of Kevin Junior’s death.Whatever they decide, Tony Stewart is at fault.
Tony Stewart and a culture of bare-knuckle racing that believes the response to competitive jostling is to storm into the scrum with fists and fingers flying.
It’s a world of high-tech machines and low-tech men.
A world where when you have a dispute with a guy you go kick his ass.
A world where it’s somehow reasonable to climb out of your car on an active race track and storm around like a 3-year-old throwing a tantrum.
A world that Tony Stewart helped create and perpetuate.
Because it wasn’t just Tony Stewart’s car that killed Kevin Ward Jr., it was his example.
It didn’t take the ESPN producers long to find video of Tony Stewart storming around on an active track himself, throwing his helmet at passing cars and giving the finger to drivers who had crossed him.
The sad irony of Saturday night’s tragedy is that Kevin Ward Jr. was killed by Tony Stewart while being Tony Stewart. You had a 20-year-old guy in a helmet and some coveralls whose entire life had been steeped in motorsports, raised in a culture which, for most of his life, had been defined by the antics of Tony Stewart.
Kevin Ward Jr.’s choice to exit his car and walk across the track was insane, but it was a choice which the code of honor of his sport almost made obligatory, and a code which was best exemplified by the man whose car would, in a split second, end his young life.
Tony Stewart has blood on his hands, through either the pressure of his foot on the throttle or the impact of his example on his sport. In a way, Tony Stewart not only ran Kevin Junior down, he also put him in the track in front of him.
Not by the jostle up against the wall, but by the expectation of how a man is supposed to react to such a jostle.
And that blood is not just on Tony Stewart’s hands, it is smeared across the multi-colored logo of NASCAR. Because when your dog runs loose and bites someone, you’re responsible. And the officials at NASCAR have allowed the hotheads of their sport – the Tony Stewarts of their sport – to rant and rage from Talladega to Daytona. The founding myth of southern racing is that it all began with hillbillies running moonshine across the back roads of Dixie. True or not, the times have changed, the society has changed and the attitudes need to change.
The line is, “Gentlemen, start your engines,” and there needs to be more emphasis on being “gentlemen.”
Because that’s what was lacking Saturday night in Canandaigua – even tempers, sportsmanship and a simple rule that says you don’t get out of your car unless it’s on fire.
It was all so needless.
And everybody watching that YouTube knows that.
And racing needs to face that fact.
I think the group that sanctioned the race should fine the kid’s estate $10,000 for ruining poor Tony’s day.
Just goes to show you shouldn’t jaywalk...especially on a
track full of race cars.
************
Guess that is what the ‘red light’ is for.
As my Daddy used to say, “Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.”
BTW, this boy must have been home-schooled or went to private school. Public schools don't allow boys to develop this way.
Bob Lonsberry is an American radio talk show host, columnist, author and conservative political commentator. A newsman for 25 years,...
And should stick to politics.
My mother taught me to stay off of busy streets/highways when I was 3.
Lots of testosterone and adrenaline on the track.
God,that's funny...I just might steal that one! ;-)
If I was on a jury hearing this as a civil case I *might* vote to award the heirs some money.If I was a juror in a *criminal* case there's no way I'd vote guilty on *any* charge unless I hear the guy say,on tape,something like "yah,I could have avoided him but I decided to hit him".
When I first heard about it, I thought, oh no! Tony is a hot head.
But factor in the dark, dirt, black suit and helmet and dumb kid, that changes things. Anyone who lives outside an urban environment knows how it is to drive in dim light. You're not going to see that deer coming out on the side of the road every time. Just not.
Tom Hanks as Jimmy Dugan “there’s no crying in baseball”!
Anonymous: “ there is no Jaywalking in Car Racing”!
I read the USAC Sprint rules and there is no mention anywhere about restrictions on drivers getting out of their cars while on the track in green, yellow or red flags. Most rules around red and yellow are restrictions on what the crew can do and say nothing about the driver. I do not believe NASCAR has such a rule either. In fact, the drivers involved in accidents in NASCAR almost always get out of their cars on the track. Just a couple of years ago, a NASCAR driver got out of their car on a red and pulled a fender off his tire. He was penalized for working on the car, but not for getting out as I recall. Sprint car drivers almost always get out of their cars on yellows as oft times the damaged cars are carried off the track on a hook since they can no longer roll.
That said, it does seem racing needs to look at the rules under yellow when cars are circulating. If the car is not on fire, the driver needs to wait until the safety team has established a perimeter to exist the car.
You have responded as if I said something about the act of getting out of the car.
My statement concerned “running around on the track, fighting, etc.”
It is possible for a driver to get out of his car....bend a fender, assist the tow truck etc, without running around and looking for somebody to punch. NASCAR has a blanket rule for ‘Causing a safety violation’, and I believe they will start using it.
In some sanctioning bodies, this and other safety considerations might be a part of the discussion at the pre-race drivers meetings. I’ve attended drivers meetings with a couple of different sanctioning bodies, and staying in the car until safety workers arrive (unless fire) was specifically addressed by both clubs.
bttt
Also notice how far that rear tire sticks out from the rest of the vehicle.
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