Tony Stewart

[Nem14]

http://www.foxsports.com/nascar/stor...rt-case-081114

As Stewart's car approached Ward, Stewart appeared to gun his throttle and his car fishtailed to the right. Stewart's right-rear wheel hit Ward, who was thrown into the air and died as a result of the contact.

The contact during the race looked like it was a racing collision.
No doubt, Kevin Ward Jr.'s should have stayed in his car until the safety crew arrived.

After, if Tony did gun his engine to the point the back of his car stepped out towards Kevin Ward Jr. he may well be facing serious legal issues.

Considering Tony Stewart's past I can easily imagine Tony Stewart, seeing Kevin Ward Jr. out on the track ready to gesture his displeasure regarding the contact he and Stewart had, gunned his engine as a way of showing that Tony Stewart expects younger drivers to accord Tony Stewart some level of respect.

In the amateur video on YouTube Kevin Ward Jr. can be seen lunging to his left trying to avoid being hit by Tony Stewart's car.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vabmqRK3mM

[R.Lee]

Everything is speculation, at this point. Conclusions cannot be drawn, until all of the results of the ongoing investigations are published. The one thing that I will say is that if there is any kind of trial, Stewart's past history of temper tantrums, threatening to kick people's asses, his incident, in Australia, a year or two ago, where he was basically kicked out of the country; his going after another car, on pit road, after a race, which placed crew members and officials in danger, etc. will not bode well for him. His track record on temper/anger control, will come back to haunt him!

[airshifter]

I don't expect charges of any kind to be files. Though Stewart can be a hothead quite often, the car in front of him almost hit Ward as well. Ward shouldn't have been out there at all, much less moving into the oncoming cars. As tragic as it is, a racing incident caused poor judgement probably sparked by the adrenaline and now a driver is dead.

[MrJan]

In the video I saw there seemed to be a clear sound of the engine as Stewart put his foot down. Whether that was because he spotted Ward and decided to try and avoid or tried to scare him is something that only Tony Stewart knows. What is clear to me is that you don't get out of your car and walk towards cars that are racing, especially not when it's dark and even more so when you're wearing black.

[Nem14]

The field was under the yellow flag, so they weren't racing when the tragic accident happened.

Kevin Ward Jr's overalls had white stripes down the arms and legs.

[MrJan]

The field was under the yellow flag, so they weren't racing when the tragic accident happened.

Kevin Ward Jr's overalls had white stripes down the arms and legs.

You cannot justify someone running on a race track like he did. I wouldn't even expect a marshal to do that, and they wear high visibility overalls (at least they do in the UK). White stripes on his overalls or not, it was a crazy and stupid thing to do.

[GravettFan99]

Cajun Sprint Cars slide as they accelerate into a turn, and Kevin was hit by the rear tire as Tony was sliding. Obviously, Tony did not do that deliberately.

I think some people say otherwise because of his temperamental nature - he has had a lot of altercations in NASCAR. However, I seriously doubt he would go as far as purposely running someone over.

I really hate it for both parties, though. This could have a negative impact on Tony's career, and of course the Ward family has an irreplaceable loss. My thoughts and prayers go out to both of them.

[Nem14]

Few are saying Tony Stewart intentionally hit Kevin Ward Jr.

Again, the yellow was out and the cars were circulating at engine idle.
A Sprint car is in gear or out of gear and does not have a clutch.
Consequently a Sprint car idles around the track under yellow at 30-40 mph.

Tony Stewart knows that gunning his engine and steering left will likely make his car get sideways to the right.
As I wondered above - Did Tony Stewart gun his engine and make the back of the car step out to the right with the intend to intimidate Kevin Ward Jr, but miscalculated where on the track young Kevin Ward Jr. was running Kevin Ward Jr. down unintentionally?

By the way - Sprint cars have brakes - why hit the gas, instead of hitting the brake?

Do Sprint car drivers use the gas to steer in the pits?

[Nem14]

You cannot justify someone running on a race track like he did.

I resent you implying with the quote I was trying to justify Kevin Ward Jr's actions.

I made it clear in my first post that I thought Kevin Ward Jr. should have stayed in his car.

[GravettFan99]

It's confirmed that Tony Stewart will not be racing this weekend.