Posted on 08/10/2014 5:04:09 AM PDT by CaptainK
NASCAR star Tony Stewart hit and killed another driver who was walking on the track in a sprint car race on Saturday night.
The other driver, Kevin Ward Jr., had collided with Stewart on the previous lap, leaving Wards car with a flat tire and pushed into the wall. As officials threw a caution, Ward left his car and began walking down the track gesturing angrily toward Stewart before being clipped and dragged 50 feet by Stewarts car.
Several spectators told Bob Pockrass of The Sporting News that Stewart appeared to throttle his car before colliding with Ward.
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
Don't forget who owns Eldora Speedway.
I still want to see whatever video you guys are watching because the only one I've been able to see, Stewart's car doesn't even enter the frame until the split second before contact. How can you determine he "veered" before hitting the other driver when you aren't able to see where Stewart's cart was coming from (up or down) before contact? And how are you so clearly able to see and determine that Stewart's intent was to veer toward the other driver and not away from him?
Because there is not supposed to be anything there to look at except another car that is of no consequence to you when you have the inside line.
No pedestrians on the track. Something bad may happen. I think its a rule.
A lot of sprint car races do indeed require radios. We’ll see about this one.
Things happen pretty fast with 700hp cars on a half-mile dirt track with lighting that isn’t the best. Dark race suit on a dark corner of the track may not give much advance notice, radio or not.
Someone who claims to race these cars said that hitting the throttle at caution speeds will cause the tail to swing toward the inside of the track, and that’s exactly what the video shows.
LOL!
Was Stewart conversing with his team? The video is one little piece.
You're certain it was him and not one of the other dozen sprint cars surrounding the camera?
That seems to be a pretty good rule, somebody had foresight when they thought that up.
You can’t get anymore conclusive than live commentary “Tony hit ‘em!” Seriously, the guy was showboating for the fans by coming out of his car. It’s no different from players that charge the mound, except speed and steel hurt a lot more. But it looks like Tony made a very bad decision to try and scare the guy.
There might have been comms with the pits but sprints dont have spotters because the tracks are short and of course the speeds are as fast as they can be. Spotters at sprint tracks would be pretty useless.
I personally think most of the “outrage” is from people who just want to be part of the mob.
Guess Thugs in sports aren’t limited to the NBA and NFL.
How tragic.
We can no longer ignore the violence in our sporting culture. From Ray Rice, to OJ Simpson, to Mike Tyson, to Aaron Hernandez and now Tony Stewart.
All are just thugs who because they are professional athletes, thought they were above the law and could hurt or kill others.
I should have pointed out that the radios required at some sprint cars races are for comm with track officials, not with spotters or pits.
How different would this thread look if it had been any one of the other 20 drivers on the track that ran him over.........
I guess it comes down to how hard the throttle is hit and at what speed the car was going just before. As I have posted before, Sprint Drivers are always hitting the throttle to varying degrees under caution. IMO the cars are not all sliding in the rear under gas. Heck, many will just jump the front end up a little from time to time.
It boils down to the fact that Ward should not have been in the middle of the track at night in a black fire suit charging Stewart’s car and therefore is ultimately to blame for his own death.
Stewart had only a split second to see the situation and react. He may have reacted wrong, but he will be found not guilty if tried. Too much reasonable doubt.
>> I still want to see whatever video you guys are watching
Ditto.
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