Forum: HoseHeads Sprint Car General Forum (go)
Moderators: dirtonly  /  dmantx  /  hosehead

I wonder if it's really a good idea for Stewart to race at all?  Don't get me wrong, I watched him for years in indy cars and NASCAR and I think it's awesome the guy will come race his sprint car about anywhere and I'm sure 99% of fans agree with me.  Unfortunately, because of who he is he has a target on him from a few idiots.  Even take the Ward situation (lets not debate this one again), that would've never happened if it's Tom Johnson but someone thinks they can get famous if they "mix it up" with him or "not taking any of Tony Stewart's shit".  Even this dip shit fan, would he be doing this to someone else?  I'm sure he's all excited today that he's in a viral video.  It's unfortunate those few people can't just apreciate what he's doing.

I've been going to races since 1960 so yeah, I've seen plenty of fights in the pits, stands, and parking lot.  Tell the judge you're protecting the sport and most won't see the significance of starting a shoving match.  The stakes are higher for a celebrity than they are for most of us.  Regardless of who it is I'd like to think we've made some progress since I watched the crew cut wearing, cigar chomping, beer swilling drivers of the 60's make their point at the pay window.  The whole WWE mentality of "he was a wise ass so he deserved it" doesn't do much for me personally.  They tell me that as men get older their testosterone levels go down and I can verify that is true.  These incidents annoy me more every year.  I'm in it for the racing and I admire drivers with family values more than the ones who are willing to drop the gloves on a moments notice.

2003, Tony Stewart visit to Cedar Lake while I was still writing my column.  Standing around Tony's pit note pad and camera in hand looking for a story.  I didn't have to wait long, Tony gets into Modified driver Mike Kelley, Mike takes exception and gets into a jawing match with Tony and we almost saw the fur fly.  The funniest part of that deal is that Mikes son is yelling "get him dad" and one of Tony's crew guys picks the little tyke up with him still yelling and his feet still kicking.  Another on track incident say Stewart throw his driving gloves at one of our Late Model drivers in one of those walk onto the track incidents.  We should set up the wrestling ring when he comes to town. 

Stan Meissner

Found a little context. Someone mentioned on Facebook and here are just a couple of comments from people who say they were there.

"Fat ass who got punched upside the head deserved it. He was sitting 10 people away from me in the grandstand running his goddamn mouth all night."

MotOr racing media24/7 posted.

"Tony blew his motor last night. In the pits he was confronted by the guy in a green shirt that was much closer to him than in the video. People were trying to get the guy to leave and pushing him out of Tony's face. The guy in green was talking about how terrible of a driver Tony was and how he should let someone else take over. Tony said you can pay for my motor if you want to tell me how to run. The guy said oh yeah I got two of them at home. I think after A long period of the guy heckling, Tony snapped. He was trying to do autographs and talk to fans."

Calling on track security to handle the guy would have been a better choice that would not have generated these discussions or the unflattering video clip that's going around this morning.  That is the job of security to handle these kinds of situations.

Stan Meissner

Stan M. I wasnt trying to suggest swinging should be the 1st effort or rebuttal. Just thinking there may be more to the story and it may have gone on a long time with Tony doing nothing. But after time and if the guy crossed a line to get personal in rare instances a shot to the head is the most effect teacher. I know it's not the ideal way but the video is short and was suggesting perhaps Tony deserves a bit of grace.

Even though I may not know you, I 
care what most of you think!

Hopefully he knocked a few teeth out of the guys mouth.secondly the track should have had some type of security in the area if the guy kept spouting his mouth off. I think someone from tony's crew needed to get that Asshole out of there. Yea in the 70's you may have gotten jumped by 1 or 2 crew guys from the car you spun. Ass kickings have been a part of dirt racing for a long time. 

If there was dental work involved it would classify as assult and he'd be making another visit to Jackson for a court appearance.  While the visual of the video clip isn't very flattering it looks like the police didn't get involved and there probably won't be any charges this time.  Personally based on my encounters with Tony who I was once introduced to by Brenda Bruggeman who's husband Jim was building Joe Gibb's transporters at the time I see a good guy who's temper gets him in trouble every now and then.  Not a big deal if you're Joe Blow who owns the car repair in town and drives Hobby Stocks and mixes it up sometimes.  Not so good for a celebrity.  Celebrity status like it or not puts a person under closer scrutiny than the rest of us.

Stan Meissner

Dont they know there kids around did you see the little girl standing holding her ears.

All the more reason I applaud Tony for popping that blowhard. Tony catches shit all over the country from loud mouthed so called "fans". I'm certain that asshole just plain crossed the line especially in front of the real fans. Oh well, he got taught a lesson and might think wiser of running his mouth next time. This whole pacifist go get security involved angle being pushed in here is ridiculous. Harden the fuck up. By the way the guys name is reported as Dennis Riggs anyone in here know him? Is he a forum member?

Cheers!

Good for you Tony!  It's not like this guy was a midget, he was a big man.  Ya' gotta land the first one brother because often that's the only one, I speak from a ton of experience on skates, lol.  A negative, people know you're a lefty now.....

From reading the entirety of the FB posts it seems this guy's antics towards Stewart were bothering not only Stewart but others around him all night.  Mouth finally got him popped. Good. 

By the way great feature last night at the ASCOC race.

Stan I get what you're saying & hindsight is always 20/20. Your arguments of people having self control whether it be for this or language are valid however, sometimes human beings can only take so much at a time. Speaking as someone who was bullied in middle school by someone who heckled me day in & out, the whole turn the other cheek or be the better person eventually goes out the window. One day I had enough and popped the guy multiple times. Could I have handled it differently? Yes. Do I regret it l? Not one bit, in fact a little piece of me took some pride in it. The school knew about the kid, I wasn't the only one he tourmented but they did nothing except say, don't do that to your fellow students. When the principal asked me why I did what I did I yelled at him, because you did nothing. You think you did something but it still happened and you let it happened, and I can only take so much and I snapped. He was stunned to silence and just dismissed me for that day.

Sometimes the problem isn't the people who swing or throw the first punch. In most cases it's people who open their mouth thinking there are no consequences for what they say. Now that doesn't mean that people have free reign to just punch anyone who they disagree with. But we should not hold the person that is being antagonized to a higher standard while holding the antagonist to a lower one. And it's 2019 not the 50s, 60s, or even 2000s. Things that happened back then are nice and it's nice to be nostalgic, but the world changes. This and profanity do not hurt the sport no matter how much people try to spin it that way. It doesn't because both have always happened even back in the 50s & 60s because human beings drove cars back then as they do now. Only difference now is you find out quicker.

Once Donny Schatz gives Tony another Bag of Granny Smith Apples, he won’t be that Sour anymore.

i was pretty disappointed with stewart last year at an ascoc race.  he pulled up in his atv for the driver's meeting and made it clear he didn't want to be bothered.  i didn't blame him too much and he said he'd be available after the race which i gave him credit for...but my son got autographs from kyle larson and a true gentleman...greg hodnett...at the same meeting.  

we went back to his car afterwards and he did live up to his promise to be available afterwards.  unfortunately he was really rude to the fans that were there.  in one sense i understood him trying to keep control of the crowd...but he was cursing and nasty to people who didn't get in the line he wanted to form.  he was right to want to focus on the driver's meeting and to keep order so people weren't cutting in line.  he was wrong in the way he was treating people.  

it looks like this fight happened in the same situation where he was rude about forming the line at the grove.  he didn't seem to enjoy taking care of the fans so i'm not surprised his fuse was short with this fan.  i hope it's not a situation where he thinks he saved sprint car racing so he can treat people however he wants.  there are lots of other role models i can take my son to meet so i don't really care whether he shows up in pa or not.

When you buy a ticket that gives you the right to watch the race.If you want to be a dumb ass so be it but once the race is over you need to keep your thoughts to yourself . I dont blame Tony as the guy had it coming.

"This whole pacifist thing?"  "Harden the fuck up?"

Really?  Is that the face you want this sport to project?  Did you get lost on the way to a WWE cage fight or something? 

The real story out of Jackson last night was someone going into the #55 hauler and robbing Brooke Tatnell and his son.  Brooke is a neighbor, a great family man and I consider him and his family as friends.  That should really be the top story that came out of Jackson people should be outraged by.  Tony's antics have overshadowed a more serious problem.  Nobody wants to attend races somewhere they're worried their car or camper is going to get busted into while they're watching the races.  I don't think celebrity drivers mixing it up with unruly fans is a good thing and drivers getting their money stolen out from under their noses is disgusting.  It was a bad night down there so I hope they can resolve the theft.  Tony is on his own if Jackson's finest come knocing, that is not a big concern after hearing of the theft.

Stan Meissner

Look at the incident from this perspective, if this exchange would have happened in every day society, it might have ended in gunfire!  

Not condoning the actions or situation as I was not there!  Sad print on our sport.

He is free to do that but given his celebrity status he runs a bigger risk of repercussions than we do.  We see this played out time and time again when celebrities are hassled and end up getting sued.

I wish I could find the clip that I was watching the other night.  It was the Joe Rogan podcast and Joe and his guest were talking about online comments about how an MMA fighter should kick some fans ass and people in the post all thought this MMA guy should teach the fan a lesson.  Joe made the point that MMA fighters have to work extra hard on self control when heckled by fans because every young tough guy wants to show his buddies he can lay a beating on them.  Joe and his guest made the points that they could litterally kill someone with a couple of blows and they of all people are on dangerous ground if they allow anger to take over.

While most Sprint Car drivers probably aren't going to pack a lethal punch their celebrity status puts them on the same level as an MMA fighter as far as noteriety goes.  People are going to provoke them and some are probably saying "hold my beer and watch me deck this asshole" as I type this reply.  Some seem to be caught up in this tough race driver thing and romanticise their memories.  You know, Hewitt speaking his mind and knocking someone on his ass and that sort of thing.  On the other hand there is a large percent of people involved in racing who would never think of taking pit security into their own hands or going off during an interview.  I throw my lot in with the ones who respect the privilege they have to drive these cars and strive to set a good example for the youngsters.  That's just the way I was raised and it isn't going to change because of a pissing match on a racing board.

Stan Meissner

Good point.  Considering the theft incident that went down last night we don't know what kind of people we're dealing with.  The guy that got in Tony's face could have been carrying and snapped when Tony went after him.  Too many possiblities these days and I saw some of that when I used to catch a bus downtown.  Back in Hewitt's day you didn't have all these conceled weapons and crazies carrying them.  Maybe Tony's issue is that he has a hard time controlling his temper in certain situations.  We can only hope he never crosses paths with someone who's anger issue is that they don't think before reaching for their pistol.  People are under a lot of stress and it's a crazy world so there is that to consider as well.  I remember one time when I was in the Navy a fellow sailor got chased by a gal with a gun.  He went from "shut up bitch" to "whatever you say ma'am" in faster than I could say "oh shit, she has a gun". 

Stan Meissner

Seen plenty of that.  Went to school with a hockey player who ended up being a college coach.  Guy's name was Bill Butters and he was one of those enforcer types on the North Starrs before they moved to Dallas and later got into coaching.  He used to kill me in dodge ball, I can still feel the red welts.  Thing is that they allow that in the NHL but not so much in the pits at race tracks.  There's those peskly little things like sheriffs and lawsuits to content with.  Were you at Princeton that night they called the sheriff on the Kinsers?  That got kind of crazy but cooler heads eventually prevailed.  They had Craig Dollansky surrounded in his car at the scales and it looked kind of grim for a few minutes. 

Stan Meissner