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All I have to say is that the dumbass shouldn't have been walking around on the damn track.
First, as many other have said, my prayers go out to both Kevin's family, friends, and Tony.
I finally watch the video. I did not want to be that guy who rubber necks at an accident instead of watching for emergency workers and the road. But there is so much discussing going on, I felt like to be informed you have to see it. My first reaction is to feel bad for all who have been affected. I raced open wheel at the local dirt track in the late 80's. My class was called modifieds, we were a 100 inch, wingless, open wheel.
As far as the racing accident/spin, I don't see any way Tony can be blamed for that. Although he was drifting up (somewhat a side job), his rear wheel was past Kevin cockpit. Only those two men will ever know what they were thinking, I suspect Kevin was trying to save momentum and was sliding up also. I could not tell if Kevin hit some marbles or just over drove corner, either way when the rear wiggled just a bit, it did not have to move far to catch the fence. Again I don't know what Kevin was thinking, but I have been in exactly the same spot. I did not let off to keep the car in my current grove, which cause me to drift up. The track at OKC was 1/4 mile and 1/2 mile that shared the front straight. The corners and back stretch did not have any guard rails, but the back straight was elevated. So instead of hitting a guardrail, my rear wheel drop off the berm, spinning, then the belly pan dug in causing me to flip. I sensed the edge and if I knew what was going to happen I would have let up, but I thought I could squeeze through. What happen between Kevin and Tony up to this point is just racing. I always felt once you could no longer see the next guy's front tire, you have the right of way. As much as there is such a thing in racing.
The foxsports.com artical that metinon Kevin's girlfriend posts.
http://www.foxsports.com/nascar/story/dead-driver-kevin-ward-girlfriend-grieves-aunt-calls-out-tony-stewart-on-facebook-081314
Ignoring the junk, and paying attention to two witnesses who are also racers, and what they said. I think their analyses represent two to the more likely scenarios. The difference between them, one thinks Tony meant to "Buzz" Kevin, the other does not. IF one of these is true and that is IF, then either one Tony did not try to hit Kevin. There is no way I will ever buy that. I wonder if it was a bad game of chicken that went horrible wrong.
We come back to Kevin getting out of the car. Not only should a racer never get out of his car, he should not unhook any belts. I have seen many a time someone miss a yellow flag and slam into a wreck/stalled car.
The next week after flipping the car in OKC (from above), we raced in a special event in Amarillo Tx. Same thing happened only this time instead of flipping off the track, I was crosswise in the middle of turn 4 upside down. I was not about to release any belts, I could still hear cars buzzing by, and this was after a red flag. As I was sitting there, upside down, for some reason my check valves for the fuel tank vents did not catch and then I felt alcohol running down my back. At that point I felt safer to get out than to be in the car. That is why we need to be careful about any knee jerk rules about getting out of the car. The best suggestion I have seen so far is: If a driver gets out of the car before the safety crew arrives, the red is displayed immediately. The driver may then face suspension and/or fines.
Again, just bad deal and tragedy.
Sad story all around.
Sent from the Samsung Galaxy which borders the Milky Way and Ford Galaxies
Agreed. If he was too much of a hot head to control himself until the race was over, then he has to live (.....or.....not) with the consequences.
Personally. I'd have waited until i had my ass back to the pits, and wait for stewart to come in, and settle a score there.
That driver was WAYYYYYYY out away from his sprint car! After seeing these videos I see a foolish pissed driver pay for getting out of his car! Too bad it cost him his life. He's lucky the first car that went by didn't hit him. (The white and blue #45.)
I don't believe local guy looks at it as some big dog coming in to wax me.
Let me set the stage for my reasoning...
Back in the day when USAC sanction most of the open wheel races then had several class two of them were (1)Silver Crown and (2)Sprint Cars. In fact during that time they actually sanction the Indy 500. There were a lot of Indy 500 drivers running Silver Crown cars. Silver Crown cars were 96" wheelbase, and I can't remember the engine size (327 plus bored?). Any way as I mention our track had a 100 inch wheelbase 360 CUI. The reason why was to keep the "professional" from coming in and taking all the loot. Both cars had to have clutches, the Silver Crown (Champ Dirt) could use external starters. The 100" had to self start which leads to a funny story later. So in 80's there was a sanctioning body called NCRA, they sanctioned races at local tracks through KS, MS, OK, and TX. Once a year there was a race billed as "NCRA" vs "USAC". USAC had the advantage in wheelbase, but NCRA had the engine size. The cars were comparatively close. The first race, a NCRA guy won it. Talk about local guy's being excited and ticked off professionals.
Anyway I say all that for this point, I think these local guy's look forward to racing the Tony's (professional). They are not going to impact the local points that much with just one race and to say I beat Tony S.
Oh, the funny part about being self starting. As I said, Silver Crown had external starters like Indy car, only they went in from the front instead of the rear. When a Silver Crown stalled on the track it had to be pushed started like sprint cars. I wish I could have seen the USAC guy's face when a NCRA car spun, stalled, self started, and then drove off back into the race. He thought there was going to be a yellow and let off, but since the car was out of the way quickly, there was no yellow.
The comments on YouTube are sad to say the least. People are crucifying Stewart. Uneducated people say he swerved at him, when its clear he swerved away from him. They say he revved the engine and popped the clutch and that is how they know he intended to hit him. Again if they knew anything about driving period or especially driving a sprint car they would understand his intent was to slide around him. They also don't seem to understand that the driver in front of Stewart said he almost hit the kid too because he didn't see him.
The worst part of all of this is the kid got hotheaded over nothing. Stewart didn't even cause his crash. Sprint cars slide in corners, everyone knows that. He tried to go high in a turn, too high, and wrecked because of it. He wanted to blame someone so since he was battling Stewart he was going to be the one to blame.
BINGO THATS EXACTLY MY POINT!!! Do people realize that driving a sprint car is like driving a boat! They turn a hell of a lot better on the throttle! Those cars are designed to twist and slide around for steering rather than turn.... Hence why they have different sized rear tires to help the steering and a massive wing. Anyone that doesn't think this is the most dangerous form of racing is insane. Sprint cars live on the edge of out of control and being in control! Not to mention them things are usually relying on only the back 2 wheels and the wing to get them to turn at full speed! Ever been to a World of Outlaws race?! Most of the time one front wheel is off the track in the corners and they pull both wheels on the straights with ease.
My point exactly uneducated people will crucify Stewart even though it wasn't his fault. Just in the first minute of the YouTube video the guy shooting the video says Tony Stewart just ran him over or something to that effect.. But fails to mention anything about the hot headed driver that decided to go ahead and react in the middle of a active racetrack. He paid the price. I wonder if it was anybody else that hit him if you'll be hearing the same thing.
Reading some of the comments from the yahoo articles make me loose even more faith in humanity if there ever even was such a thing... People saying Stewart should be banned from racing and charged is sickening.
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