NASCAR Driver Tony Stewart Hits and Kills Rival Driver

http://deadspin.com/reports-tony-stewart-ran-over-opposing-driver-during-1618893708

I am not a NASCAR fan, though I have heard of Tony Stewart. Pretty crazy... stupid kid should have stayed in his car, though it looks to me that Tony could have done more to avoid him. Apparently the police are investigating though no charges have been filed.

Bravado wasn't the best strategy, was it?

he should just stayed in his car

Well...that is what happens when you get out of your car during a race on a dark night, and proceed to actually walk INTO the path of oncoming cars.

I sense a Darwin award. I feel for his family though.

How stupid do you have to be to do what he did...

i think he was just mad and was not thinking for his safety at that moment

Kevin Ward got out of his car when it was at night and started walking TOWARDS the track where cars were racing instead of going to safety. It was obvious he was mad at Tony and was seeking him out on the track. There was a car directly in front of Tony's and it was dark. Kevin was wearing black and running towards Tony's car looking to confront him. I don't see how Tony's can be blamed for this. Also Tony Stewart will not be racing in today's NASCAR due to this Tragic Incident and needs time to sort this out.

R.I.P Kevin Ward Jr. and I wish for his Family to make it through this.

Kevin gets out of the car to confront Tony about him clipping Kevin, and when Kevin is in front of Tony's car you can clearly hear Tony rev his car, hit Kevin and throw him across the track.

Tony Stewart ran down Kevin Ward. Nothing will happen though because it's Tony Stewart and he's a big time NASCAR driver.

What you probably heard was a rev from a car nearer to the phone that was recording it. I say this because you can't actually hear the car wreck that the other driver is in. Why would you be able to hear him rev his car if we couldn't hear that?

I see Stewart's car turning to try and avoid the guy. There was then the sound of his tires squealing as they got purchase on the track.

Also, I'm going to echo the other sentiments in this thread: You don't get out of your car and walk towards THE OTHER PEOPLE that are racing.

I don't know too much about how to drive one of these cars, but this is part of an article I read earlier: "It appears Stewart saw him at the last second, and swerved, but still hit Ward hard enough to toss him like a rag doll at least 20 feet down the track. An autopsy is pending, but it seems likely Ward suffered a broken neck, though he still had his helmet and head restraint device on, but the device only works when you are strapped into your car. Stewart stopped about a hundred feet down the track. Emergency workers were there in second. Indeed, Stewart may have hit the gas, but you steer sprint cars with the throttle more than with the steering wheel. The idea that he accelerated trying to hit Ward is beyond the pale."

I don't buy that it was another vehicle, Stewart's car was slowing down then to just blast forward as the engine sounds?

Another thing is something I just heard on SportsCenter, apparently Tony Stewart went home and went to sleep after this whole ordeal...and I'm just wondering how you go to sleep after killing a 20 year old (no denying that part, Tony Stewart did kill Kevin Ward)

Read my edit. Also, people handle shock very differently.

@airshocker: That bit I saw on SportsCenter (cause I've been following this since last night trying to escape all the Johnny Manziel BS) and they had a phone call from another driver who refuted that visibility is terrible. He said that visibility is just fine.

Tony Stewart has been driving his entire life and could easily be considered one of the best professional drivers in the world -- I don't see how anyone can say he was surprised by something happening on the race track.

From two seconds of investigating:

• For starters, Stewart has superb eyesight — 20/13 in one eye, 20/15 in the other
• 64 professional wins ranging from NASCAR to IndyCar
• He's in the Midget Racing Hall of Fame

Yeah, but he was willing and ready to race up until a few hours before the race. I bet someone had to smack some sense into him before "he decided" not to race.

Get out of the road, you might get yourself hurt. Oh wait...

Need for Speed was real after all.

an abject lesson for ot on the importance of keeping your temper in check.

I'm pretty sure one of the first things they teach you on the path to becoming a race car driver is never leave your car unless it's on fire.

Ward should have stayed in his car. He has no one to blame but himself for his tragic demise. It was dark, Ward had a black jump suit on, he was in the middle of the track, Stewart was coming out of a corner, and you can clearly see him swerve to avoid Ward. If he really wanted to hit Ward, why didn't he hit him head on? I doubt Stewart had time to think "well, I should probably make this look like I wasn't trying to kill him". Lesson here for other drivers, speeding car beats human body.

Dirt track, drivers need to give it gas to get the car going in the direction they want. The only way for Tony to get out of his way was to give it gas.

Really wish people would learn about the sport before they wrote comments like that.

Bold to assume you know more than some random person on the internet, just saying.

Tony's response to 'there is someone directly in front of me' is to accelerate forward aggressively? I don't buy that for a second. I wholeheartedly refuse to believe that a semi-normal occurrence on a track could surprise a driver with the pedigree of Tony Stewart.

It's hardly bold. Statistically speaking if the average person knows nothing about the sport, which they don't, the chances that a RANDOM person on the internet knows more than somebody who actually knows their stuff really is not that large. It would be quite small really...

More importantly, since when is someone running towards vehicles on a closed circuit semi-normal. This isn't some near future blood sport like Death Race. It's appalling how you simply can't take a tragedy like this objectively.

NASCAR has drivers running at moving vehicles multiple times every season. Hell, how many times a season is someone in pit lane is someone struck by an overzealous driver exiting pit lane? Tony Stewart himself has been out on the track when the stock cars are driving - ESPN showed him running in front of a moving stock car to throw his helmet at the vehicle.

I see one of the best drivers in the world running down another driver. I hear him revving his engine after slowing down as soon as Kevin Ward is in front of his car on turn 1 and only coming to a stop just shortly before turn 2.

But as the article I just linked you to says: On these types of tracks with these types of cars, you have to accelerate in order to turn.

If he had turned sharply he would have smashed the whole side of his car against the driver walking towards him. So it seems that Stewart was pretty much damned if he did anything, and damned if he didn't.

That's all well and good that the best course of action for turning is to accelerate, but what would have happened if he slammed on the breaks? I doubt a 1100lb midget racer takes that long to stop and you sure as shit aren't going to throw someone across the track if you hit them while decelerating.

The man is a professional driver and the course of action he decided upon is to accelerate towards the person immediately in front of you? Tony Stewart also hit Kevin dead on with his car, so the only turning he did (more of a little shutter from the car rather than a turn) was after Kevin was already being carried on his car.

Have you ever tried to slam on your brakes while driving on dirt? You don't instantly stop. You slide quite a bit.

Maybe trying to turn was his only course of action? You don't know. So really you shouldn't be coming to any conclusion just yet.

I feel sorry for Tony and the friends and family of the idiot that ran into race traffic, but I don't feel sorry for the idiot

Not quite sure whats with the "Tony did it on purpose". Let me put it this way, if you were driving on a highway at 65 mph and see some guy walking on the highway looking at your car--would you think for a second--"hey he's definitely going to jump himself in hitting position of my car!" NO. Most of us will think the same way, there's no way he's going to put himself in a spot where I can hit him or jump in front of our car. Yea Tony saw him, but did you really think Tony thought the guy was just going to jump in front of Tony's car there and take the hit? Why did he come out of his car AND walked towards Tony's car. He literally looked for Tony and jumped in front of the damn car then at the last second decided to jump out of the way and failed. Do you blame the train? Or the guy who stepped in front of the train? Not a nascar or tony fan but the what the guy did was stupid and he's to blame. Condolences to his family but seriously, this was his fault not Tony's.

meh....

There are 1000 theories out there stating whether it was intentional, accidental, or just plain bad luck. In my best guess is that they were probably both a little upset, and Tony probably did see him out on the track. They did throw up the caution flag, so one would assume that drivers would be on the lookout for debris, the accident, etc. Anyways, Tony probably meant to brush by him close and didn't anticipate him walking out so far to confront him on the track.... a bit of chicken on both sides. He certainly won't be charged with murder since there is no premeditation, but maybe involuntary manslaughter since Tony did not seem to make a good effort to get out of the way. Who knows... tragic on all accounts.

I feel for him and I hope this Stewart guy didn't mean to do it. RIP Kevin

I heard it's pretty common to leave a car to confront another driver. Doesn't make it any less idiotic though...

A semi-normal occurrence? Are you stupid? Ward got out of his car, and walked directly into the path of the active racers, agitated, pointing and yelling like he was going to throw motherfucking fisticuffs with a moving vehicle. Tony Stewart surely has experience avoiding other cars on the track, and broken pieces of cars, and people who are being extremely cautious, staying away from the cars, and maybe the occasional dazed person who's just kind of standing there, but I doubt that he's used to having people deliberately storm right into his path and step up like he's gonna take a tackle.

Open your eyes man. Ward completely lost his temper, lost all sense of reason, and walked into the path of the racers. The revving you hear in the video is absolutely not Stewart's car, as it's already been pointed out that it makes no sense that the rev could be heard that clearly while other sounds from that area are inaudible. His car swerved because that's what happens when you try in a panic to avoid a crazy person trying to assault your car while you're going 40mph+ on a dirt road. Any attempt to lay blame on anything but Ward's temper and ridiculous lack of professionalism is pure denial.

He does know more than you, though. Because he's right. I don't know if Stewart did it on purpose or not, but you DO have to hit the gas to be able to turn on a dirt track. That is a fact.

Unless you are going slow, but this is a race...soooo

man vs. car, car wins

After watching the unedited raw video I gotta say...it kinda looks like Tony Stewart veered into him a bit. Also there seems to be a lot of eye witness accounts that say the same. It's difficult to tell though, either way I hope the justice prevails whatever the truth is. Even if Tony Stewart is guilty of something...man have to say the other driver is an idiot.

Does Tony Stewart think I'm going to let him win the race?

Over my dead body!

Tony Probably never saw the guy till it was too late.

Stewart and Ward made contact in the corner that spun Wards car. Stewart probably knew that Ward spun, but other than that was on his way around the track.

Ward gets out of the car while Tony is still going down the back stretch, someone that has been in as many races and wrecks as Stewart is not going to be rubber necking at the stopped car, he is going to be checking his car for damage, see if it affected his handling, or if it damaged any of the aero on his car. More than likely he wasn't aware that Ward was even walking on the track.

If you're not familiar with the Sprint cars in the race, they have huge aero wings on top of the car. Those wings also drape across the right side of the car giving you zero visibility to your right. You literally can only see directly in front of you.


Ward was moving down the track towards traffic. The car in front of Stewart almost hit Ward, and when Stewart came around Ward moved even closer.

Honestly Tony Probably never saw him, and if he did, it wasn't until it was too late as Ward was stepping closer to him.

It's an unfortunate situation, but there is no need for criminal charges.

If Stewart is smart, he will retire and focus on the business side of racing from now on.

If nothing else, here's to hoping they can make racing safer.

I'm amazed at the absolutely incredible ignorance of the people trying to claim Stewart did it on purpose. That is not a determination that is even remotely possible to make based on what we have, and it's not coincidence that most of the boneheads staking out this position have shown an absolutely astounding ignorance of the actual realities (or physical basics) of this kind of event. Some people truly have no shame. Ward lost his temper and lost his life doing something incredibly stupid and insanely dangerous. I'm sorry the poor kid died, but he ultimately made the decision to get out of the car without good reason and walk into oncoming traffic.

Personal responsibility, it's a bitch.

For whatever reason, men between 15 to 25 think they are indestructible. All the kid has to do is stay beside his car or even stand back 10 feet, and he is alive today. But Ward literally threw himself at Tony's car, and now his family, friends, and Stewart have to deal with his brain dead decision. Charging Tony with anything is bullshit. His family doesn't even deserve financial compensation. What this kid did is by far the dumbest thing I've witnessed.

@vl4d_l3nin: Lol perfect.