Let’s get some facts out here:
The track is 1/2 mile long in total.
The track surface is ‘dirt’, which is slick from water put down before each set of laps, etc. They need to keep ‘dust’ down.
The yellow flag is thrown only at the start/finish line.
Drivers ‘race to the yellow flag’.
There is no set of yellow lights around the track.
The distance from the start/finish line to the site of where Ward walked into Tony’’s car is less than 1/4 mile.
All the cars were slowing down because of the yellow.
This was the FIRST lap under the yellow after Ward’s car hit the outer wall & had a flat tire.
The speed allowed under the yellow is between 35 & 40 MPH. I don’t know the exact racing speed involved on the lap before the yellow, but 60-70 MPH would NOT surprise me.
Tony is looking FORWARD inside his car to make sure he doesn’t hit a car in front of him who MIGHT be slowing down a bit quicker.
Tony has a guard rail on his left side, which he doesn’t want to hit.
It is night.
There are ‘lights’ at this track, but it is NOT DAYLIGHT conditions.
Ward is wearing a black driving suit.
No peripheral vision to speak of out the right side of a Winged Sprint car.
NO driver in ANY race is expecting a PEDESTRIAN coming into his path.
There is a difference between being competitive & being stupid. The kid was stupid.
Tony did nothing wrong.
Thank you! This tread’s author needs as much help as possible to understand what happened and what’s on every racer’s mind during any race. First thought should be, don’t get killed, second if you get in an accident and don’t get killed, THANK GOD, AND DON’T DO SOMETHING STUPID TO MAKE MATTERS WORSE!