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

Driver was DOA per Sheriff press conference.

RIP Kevin Ward Jr.

Regarding whether or not driver Kevin Ward Jr. was fatally injured, I hope it is not true but several different New York dirt track boards have many posts from people who were there and are claiming it was a fatality. There seems to be too many reputable people all posting the same thing on those boards for it to be inaccurate. Even discounting those accounts, a Life Flight helicopter was originally called for driver Kevin Ward Jr., then cancelled. That doesn't sound good at all.

Ward was also apparently 20 years old, not 17, as was reported earlier. He was in his fifth season racing with the Empire Super Sprints and had four careeer wins with the organization.

Not defending anyone but Just a thought here..... Maybe Tony stabbed the throttle to just get by the kid, I've seen driver do it many times in sprints/nascar and other forms of racing. I watched the video several times and I can't say one way or another because the camrera was moving around so much. To me it didn't look like Tony's car swerved until after it made contact.

I watched the video again in frames. Tony's car didn't shift until after he made contact. In other words the contact between Kevin and Tony's car caused ithe car to abruptly change direction. In fact you can see Tony back steering to the LEFT, not right, after making contact.

I didn't see any evidence of Tony reving his engine either. If you go frame by frame, you'll see Kevin was clearly in front of Tony's car. Tony had no where to go.

To suggest that Tony ran him down intentionally is nonsense. Tony wasn't mad, he had no reason to be mad. The person who was mad was the driver running around on the live race track.

Sure looks like intentional manslaughter charges to me

Half the lies they tell about me aren't true. 

Anybody whos ever driven a winged car will come to the same conclusion I did.....Tony never saw the guy until he was on top of him...black suit, black groove, dust in your eyes, 90% of the right side cockpit opening blocked by a wing panel and full containment seat... when the yellow comes out you are opening your visor, wiping out your eyes, adjusting your belts, looking at the guages and trying not to hit a car slowing in front of you while not brakechecking somebody behind you. You don't even consider that theres already a guy out of his car running at you from your blind side. The blue car in front of Tony almost hit the guy and that wasn't even who he was running at.

I hope many drivers who gave up posting on here long ago will choose to chime in on this one

Loose is when you hit the wall with the rear of the
car, tight is when you hit the wall with the front of
the car. Horsepower is how fast you hit the wall and
torque is how far you move the wall.

If you slow the video down and go frame by frame, you'll see Tony's right front actually hit Kevin first, then he got tangled in the rear and kicked the car sideways.

The kid flat ran out in front of him; Tony had no where to go.

Tyler Graves, a sprint-car racer and friend of Ward's, told Sporting News in a phone interview that he was sitting in the Turn 1 grandstands and saw everything.

"Tony pinched him into the frontstretch wall, a racing thing," Graves said. "The right rear tire went down, he spun on the exit of (Turn) 2. They threw the caution and everything was toned down. Kevin got out of his car. … He was throwing his arms up all over the place at Tony for most of the corner.

"I know Tony could see him. I know how you can see out of these cars. When Tony got close to him, he hit the throttle. When you hit a throttle on a sprint car, the car sets sideways. It set sideways, the right rear tire hit Kevin, Kevin was sucked underneath and was stuck under it for a second or two and then it threw him about 50 yards."

Graves said he didn't believe it was intentional.

"You never mean to do something like that," Graves told Sporting News. "Kevin was pissed and he let Tony know. And Tony was trying to give the message back that he wasn't happy either. He went over the line with it."

http://www.foxsports.com/nascar/story/police-investigating-sprint-car-incident-involving-three-time-nascar-champion-tony-stewart-081014

 
 
 
They don't even know how to spell sprint car 
much less chromoly...http://www.ycmco.com

Im with darnall looked like to me he ran right in front of Stewarts right rear...l dont think Tony even saw him. After this deal any driver who gets out of his car to throw a fit is probably going to get fined or at least kicked out of the race. 

They are still going to have a very tough time explaining to a jury of non-racing people why he jammed the gas pedal instead of the brake WHEN HE SAW HIM.

 
 
 
They don't even know how to spell sprint car 
much less chromoly...http://www.ycmco.com

There won't be a jury or a trial. The only thing we know for certain is that a driver got out of his car and dilberately ran out on to a live race track.

I am no longer a fan of this POS. What an arrogant self centred ass. Tony Stewarts legacy will now be that he killed a fellow competitor by behaving like a hot headed lunatic. I hope he rots in jail for thiS and gets sued big time. Prayer to the grieving family.

Knoxville Natioanls attendee since '95
Favorite Tracks...River Cities, Knoxville, Cedar Lake
Favorite Drivers...S.Kinser, T.Kaeding, K.Madsen, S.Smith
Proud Canadian 

I don't know who drives the 45 car, but that driver could very easily be getting crucified right now instead of Smoke.

I believe both angles of video I saw are both down from youtube now.

Just sickening , this whole night .

So cubic.... you really think somebody sitting on the front stretch of a halfmile track could see that much detail all the way over in turn 2 under such a traumatic time involving a good friend?   He's not even right about being pinched into the frontstretch wall or when the tire went down...tire was fine....car got into the marbles too hot, hit the wall with the RR that was clearly inflated at corner entry, and thats what flattened it... your memory is never exactly what you end up seeing on a video after the fact

Loose is when you hit the wall with the rear of the
car, tight is when you hit the wall with the front of
the car. Horsepower is how fast you hit the wall and
torque is how far you move the wall.

You sir are the ass!

The hot headed lunatic was the driver running around on the active race track, dodging sprint car bullets. 

This was a tragic accident and I pray the good Lord gives peace and comfort to Kevins Family.  The article I just read points to what others here have said and what I felt to be the case, this was by no means intentional.  http://bigstory.ap.org/article/witness-tony-stewart-hits-driver-ny-dirt-track

The older I get the faster I was

The No. 45 was Chuck Hebing. He is a former champion with ESS.

You should pull you're head outta your ass and watch the video again. And while you're at it take Stewarts dick outta your mouth. I've seen drivers do this a hundred times before....get out of their cars pissed off waving at the other driver. But I have never someone mash the throttle and hit a driver standing on the track. 

Knoxville Natioanls attendee since '95
Favorite Tracks...River Cities, Knoxville, Cedar Lake
Favorite Drivers...S.Kinser, T.Kaeding, K.Madsen, S.Smith
Proud Canadian 

That's not what happened.

Stewart wasn't even mad? He's not the one who wrecked. In fact, they never actually made any contact prior to the flip.

The kid put himself in a dangerous position and a tragic accident occured.

Why would Tony intentionally mow someone down? No motive.