I built those type of cars and have been on dirt tracks many years ago. Saw video, and my conclusion is this.
No driver shall EVER leave vehicle unless safety or circumstances dictate, if they do they face fines and suspensions. He stood in front of Tony. Did he expect Tony to stop on a dime? To cause a chain reaction wreck?
I have watched Tony racing for many years, never would he deliberately hit someone.
I agree 100%... Unfortunately only 1 driver could have made sure this did not happen tonight and his mistake cost him the ultimate penalty, his life.
Not that it makes any difference to what happened tonight, but one thing I would like to add, as a general statement, to all those saying Tony is just a Hot Head, I will say, Yes he was, in his earlier Nascar days... He was one driver I did not like at the time because they would not race clean... and bitched and whined about everything and everbody, nothing was his fault... Tony was penalized numerous times by Nascar after altercations with Kenseth or Gordon among others... and made some trips to anger management sessions... in the early days.
But more recently, I would have to say, he has grown up and changed his ways a lot over the past years... If he screws up, he’s not afraid to say that’s what happened now... He raced his way into the Championship and I was happy for him at the time. I think he was pretty well respected by his competitors by then too... As far as racing clean, he does it much better now that he is also the car owner and has to pay for all the damage... He is just plainly a racer at heart (which is why he is also racing in a sprint car, a hobby, something he loves doing, that does not pay big money like his career in sprint cup) and pretty descent guy, that gives a good chunk of his winnings to 3 different Kids Charities... also he owns Eldora Speedway and does at least the one big yearly race on pay tv that he gets Nascar stars racing Late Model Stock cars on his dirt track and donates everything to Victory Junction gang...