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I don't think anyone on here can know the intent of TS.
Putting that aside, KW was way too far onto the track against a vehicle some 20 times his weight and with all of that momentum, we now know if you do that, you will be killed.
Now with that aside, we can go back to speculating.
Another sure thing, this will be another huge black eye on the sport of racing.
Well, NASCAR got really famous to casual sports fans when the Allisons and Cale Yarborough got out of their cars during a race and got in a fistfight during the race. That was in 1979, over 35 years ago.
Actually, that happened when the race had already ended. They were fighting while Richard Petty was on his way to victory lane. But the point remains the same. One of the first notable helmet throws was Dale Jarrett in 1993 at Bristol. Earlier, that same year, Kyle Petty and Bobby Hillin were shoving each other in the grass at Daytona. Why are these so memorable? Because nothing else like that happened the entire year. No pointing, throwing, nothing while racing was going on. Compare that to today. How many times has someone gotten out and pointed, etc. Too many to probably keep count.
Actually, that happened when the race had already ended. They were fighting while Richard Petty was on his way to victory lane. But the point remains the same. One of the first notable helmet throws was Dale Jarrett in 1993 at Bristol. Earlier, that same year, Kyle Petty and Bobby Hillin were shoving each other in the grass at Daytona. Why are these so memorable? Because nothing else like that happened the entire year. No pointing, throwing, nothing while racing was going on. Compare that to today. How many times has someone gotten out and pointed, etc. Too many to probably keep count.
The crash happened on the last lap while those two were battling for the lead and Petty went by before cruising on to the win...
- This happened in the middle of a turn on a steeply banked and slippery dirt track.
- This race was at night with dim lighting, and the driver was wearing a black firesuit and helmet.
- Kevin Ward was in the middle of the racing groove.
If person A decided to walk onto a highway in the middle of a curve at night while it was raining (I'll use this since dirt track surfaces are slippery) and person B hit him, should person B be blamed for person A's death? Technically person B did kill person A, but I can't imagine most people who are blaming Tony for Kevin's death would blame person B in the above scenario.
The way I see it, Kevin Ward unintentionally committed suicide.
The sad thing is that Kevin probably got the idea to walk out onto the race track from other drivers (including Tony) who have walked onto the track to express anger in past races.
The way I see it, Kevin Ward unintentionally committed suicide.
The sad thing is that Kevin probably got the idea to walk out onto the race track from other drivers (including Tony) who have walked onto the track to express anger in past races.
When I first read the title to this thread, I said to myself, what moron just committed suicide. But when I watched the video, and saw the swerve for the first time, I thought to myself, Tony just murdered that guy. But watching it over and over again, I feel as if Ward is more to blame.
The kid just died, so sympathy will always be in favor of the person and family of the recently deceased. But give it time, backlash will come back on this Kevin Ward kid.
Also, other drivers do influence the younger drivers to act the way Kevin did. But more so, it's also the fans, they always cheer when they see these tanter tantrums. It's the culture, young kids think it's cute to have the tough guy bad boy image.
P.S. Anyone remember Juan Pablo Montoya losing control of his vehicle going into a turn at Dayton under caution? Hitting the drying truck.
Location: West Los Angeles and Rancho Palos Verdes
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Something I do not believe mentioned yet is that the helmet visors of sprint car drivers get covered with lots of mud, which is why they have something like 8 tear-offs per race. So then, if there was a lot of mud on Stewart's visor and he didn't have the chance to yet remove a tear-off, that could have been a significant factor.
I see a young man acting like a rooster to impress his friends in going after the big star. Won't be a criminal trial but I do see a civil money grab by the victim's family.
Likely settled by insurance before trial. Civil court remember assigns blame per cent age and the victims actions in walk into the driving track would be huge partition :IMO.
Two competitors. Tragically, but not surprisingly, one died. The utter stupidity that it takes to step out in the middle of that dirt track like that, waving arms like a raving lunatic, must violate some law of nature.
With that said, I believe that Stewart should be criminally charged. He was skilled enough to maneuver Ward's car into the wall at high speeds. He certainly was skilled enough to avoid injuring, even touching, that man on the track. Stewart's action was reckless and unreasonable, and created a substantial risk of death, which unfortunately resulted. Utter moron.
Last edited by LexusNexus; 08-11-2014 at 04:59 PM..
Two competitors. Tragically, but not surprisingly, one died. The utter stupidity that it takes to step out in the middle of that dirt track like that, waving arms like a raving lunatic, must violate some law of nature.
With that said, I believe that Stewart should be criminally charged. He was skilled enough to maneuver Ward's car into the wall at high speeds. He certainly was skilled enough to avoid injuring, even touching, that man on the track. Stewart's action was reckless and unreasonable, and created a substantial risk of death, which unfortunately resulted. Utter moron.
You mean Kevin Ward's actions were reckless and unreasonable, creating a substantial risk of death?
Another question that needs to be considered is, did Tony's back left tire receive any damage from that prior contact the lap before? Because if so, than that would contribute to the instability of his control. (The collision with Ward added further damage. So this may never be determined within an investigation.)
Other cars passed Kevin Ward after coming out of the turn, but, it appears that Kevin Ward walked further and met Tony's car right into the end of the turn. Being at a point, where stability was also harder to control.
Last edited by Truly Missouri; 08-11-2014 at 06:30 PM..
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Stewart should be charged criminally
