"From what I saw, Tony did everything in his power to turn down away from Kevin to avoid him," said sprint car driver Cory Sparks.
Sparks was just a few cars behind Stewart during Saturday's race. He said videos that have been posted online do not give an accurate picture of what happened.
"People say that they heard the engine rev up and he gassed it. In a sprint car, the only way to steer is you steer with the rear wheels as much as you do the steering wheel. In my opinion, what he did was he gassed it to turn down away from him," said Sparks.
Sparks also said drivers are very limited with the amount they can see out of the right side of the car.
I read another account from a driver who said the accident which made Ward so angry was probably his fault, too. He said you don’t get in a driver’s blind spot on the right side coming out of turn.
I’ve only driven on one banked oval ,, most of my driving was sports cars .. but everything I know and have heard suggests that the straightaway of a dirt oval being hard packed ... the car would not have turned with the steering wheel , there was nothing for the tires to bite into , just plowed... especially at low speed with no downforce available from the wing.
One thing everyone seems to forget is that it takes about 300 millisecs to comprehend what you see and another 500 to reposition your feet and operate a pedal ,, hitting the brakes was NOT AN OPTION...
Stewart likely saw the kid late with the wing and other visual obstructions... the only thing he could have done was what he did ... if he could do it over he might have used MORE throttle and hoped to point directly at the infield or even spin/flip...