John H

Never did see contact. Not sure why Ward was so pissed at TS to begin with. Thus I agree with the SHOWTIME sentiment.

fbirch

I agree with everything in your post, especially the parts in bold.

Despite the many hothead behaviors TS has demonstrated in the past, as others have stated, it’s not clear he would have had a reason to be angry or to try intimidating the kid after the wreck. It would be interesting to know if the two of them had been going at each other for multiple laps prior to the incident. If so, tempers may have been elevated prior to the incident, and that might explain why the kid was so angry after the initial wreck, which looks like a racing incident at best or his own fault at worst.

But as you stated so correctly, we will never know what TS was thinking at the point of the tragedy.

Astroman

I would be shocked if Tony Stewart, with his potential liability exposure, would race anything anywhere without video.

I'm sure there is better video (hopefully Stewart's) that will clear this all up. And hopefully soon.

Racerrob

I am an attorney and 20 year road racer. I don't know NY law but here is my take.

Only TS knows what happened and I doubt it will ever be known. I will be surprised if there will be criminal charges--too hard to prove, even manslaughter. Civil case is possible but the family has to overcome the waiver (not easy) and the kid's serious contributory negligence. Tony would be subject to deposition in a civil case and even though he could plead the 5th, I suspect he will not want to be put under oath. A quiet settlement sounds likely.

Some questions: TS had a go pro, what does it show? I dont know if sprint cars usually run telemetry but did his car? Was he really in the throttle--sure sounds like it. What was the steering input?

If he was in the throttle, I cant reconcile why. Was he trying to spin the car to avoid him? Trying to intimidate him? A sad situation.

JCP911S

Who knows? I've seen people do a lot of dumb-*** things in cars that made no sense.

Just acknowledging that TS has a record of anger issues, so fair or not, this encourages people to speculate.

Maybe he didn't like being showed up by some small-time punk, and wanted to show him who the big shot was.

Maybe he was just innocently moving over to get a better view of the track, and didn't see the guy until it was too late.

We can't look into the man's heart, so we'll probably never know.

Jim Child

But Tony didn't get shown up. Ward tried to race Tony Stewart on the outside and lost. That's going to make Tony smile, not **** him off.

Some people are assuming Tony somehow bore this kid ill will, and it just isn't supported by the facts.

996FLT6

About the audio with what sounds like ts inducing throttle and nailing ward could be mistaken for throttle lift ie engine braking and see ts's car rear end start to tail out which looks like a curtail sign of lifting. Anyway what a depressing and sad incident that shouldn't have happened if Ward stayed in car and go back to paddock and thr

996FLT6

Throw fists/helmets then. Mike

500

Your entire post was excellent, and this quote sums up my state of mind. TS could have been angry at Ward for any host of reasons that we did not see. It is very plausible that TS was actually an unfortunate innocent party here, but his past reputation also makes it believable that he may have wanted to give Ward a scare. I am sure though that he did not mean to actually hit him.

No matter which way it really was, it is a very sad situation all around. A young man is dead, and another man may have to live with the terrible memory AND the doubts of some people (unfounded or not) for the rest of his life.

If TS does have some GoPro footage that would clearly exonerate him, that would be the best outcome at this stage...

VaSteve

I have read on twitter that there was no GoPro.

For a 20 year professional racer with three titles, racing in a hobby race what's the point?

Horus2000

My real question, which I don't believe has been discussed, is whether or not he had a spotter working on his radio. I'm not familiar with this type of racing, so don't know if that's a standard practice or not. But, I would also be very interested in radio transmissions just prior to and post accident.

At the end of the day, I have a VERY hard time believing that any racer, much less TS, would intentionally hit an unprotected driver. Even if he was trying to "intimidate", it has to be an accident that he made contact.

Regardless of the actions of the other driver, I place 99% of the responsibility on the guy who got out of his car and ran into active race traffic. That being said, it's a terrible tragedy all the way around and he paid a terrible price for that decision. My thoughts are with his family and those that loved him.

mongrelcat

Here's stabilized/slowed video.

hacker-pschorr

JCP911S

I don't believe for one second that Tony Stewart would ever intentionally hurt another driver.

When you are racing, you just react, and in that split second, you find out who you are.

I don't know who he is, and I cannot judge him. We don't. Maybe he doesn't either.

consolidated

Racers in my experience are fiercely protective of each other because of their shared risk. For those who haven't strapped in before they see little space between a hothead throwing a helmet at a moving car and a person running another racer down, but to me the two things are a universe apart.