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.
When my stepdad got pissed at us he used to tell us to “go play on the freeway!!”
Darwin award winner if you ask me.
If one decides to step in front of 1000# machines moving at high speeds on a slippery track that person can expect to die.
Once again, Lonsberry shows his idiot side.
I agree with you that Stewart’s vision might have been impaired - due to the vehicle itself, plus the dim lighting on the track. I’m not that familiar with this style of vehicle - regarding the driver’s ability to see more than just a small front view of the track. That track really needed much better lighting.
It’s funny, but on the NASCAR tracks - the one nighttime race they have is lit up like it’s daylight.
The limited view is a good point. I drove stock cars for several years and a driver really can’t see that well, especially at night. You have mud on your shield, your wearing a helmet, and you’re surrounded by a roll cage. There are a lot of blind spots. In addition, you are told in every safety meeting to remain in your car until the emergency crew gets on scene unless the car is on fire. You never run onto the track. Cars have even hit emergency vehicles with flashing lights because of poor visibility. It’s not surprising that the driver got run over.
‘targeted sports: football, hockey, auto racing
accepted sports: baseball, basketball, golf, tennis’
Under ‘accepted’, you left out soccer.
AMEN.
I am 74 & have been around racing since I was 17.
I have known a great many drivers in many types of auto racing.
I have NEVER know a single driver who expected to have to deal with a PEDESTRIAN on the track.
Especially with a Winged Sprint car-—the wing cuts off the view to the side.
I am sorry this kid is dead.
However, Tony Stewart isn’t one bit responsible for hitting him.
The kid chose to walk into traffic—something we all have been warned about since we could toddle.
IF this writer thinks that this kid was trained & raised under the tutelege of Stewart—had he lived, would he have done the same thing to a PEDESTRIAN on the track????
Crucifying Tony over this is just plain wrong, IMO.
You are correct-—
I think USAC is the sanctioning body for these cars & tracks.
Very few people making all these comments against Tony have ANY idea how many of these tracks are all across America & are a big piece of entertainment for the small towns they are in.
Also- These tracks are where new drivers get their start. NO ONE steps into a NASCAR car, an Indy car, of a Formula One car out of the gate.
I think that’s sort of the point of the article. NASCAR has had a hint of professional wrestling to it in the last few years..”””
Did you EVER watch NASCAR in the years when David Pearson—Fred Lorenzen—Cale Yarborough & others were driving?
Today’s driver’s are poufs by comparison.
Don’t forget that the pedestrian SOUGHT OUT Stewart’s car. This wasn’t a guy trying to get across the track to escape harm. Other cars were able to avoid him because he didn’t want to get in their faces. He wanted to get in Stewart’s face.
The pedestrian was an experienced, proficient racer with 3 or 4 years experience in these cars on these kind of tracks.
And we STILL have professional sports talkers proudly demonstrating their ignorance on the subject, even after plenty of time to do homework.
It’s funny, but on the NASCAR tracks - the one nighttime race they have is lit up like it’s daylight.”””
And that track is a very expensive track, where the races that run there charge alot of money.
The small ‘bullring’ tracks all over the USA are no different than the one that involved this death.
This is where drivers get their start-—after doing Go-Karts, etc, for years. The small towns run an event almost every Saturday night. The money that goes into that small town keeps everything running.
Any legal action could endanger those small town tracks. I think Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, has been open since the end of WWII. Many outstanding drivers have come out of thee. I think Jimmie Johnson got his start at El Cajon small track.
I understand that .. don’t assume I don’t.
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