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

Man, didn't take long for a complete dipshit announcer.

I assume the username comes from a habit of awful posting?

You are free to believe that getting money out of Tony accomplishes ANYTHING. There are others out there who think otherwise. I am one of them. The nature of my posts tend to not sugarcoat the subject matter. Some people can't take that and others just don't like being wrong. And, yes, a point was made at some point in the distant past that banning somebody doesn't mean much when slightly altering the login gets you back in :-)

Ok, here’s the deal. And I will preface this by saying I am a fan of Smoke and all he’s done for racing, in particular sprint car racing.  But here are some undeniable facts that, in my mind, are undeniable.

FACT: Kid shouldn’t have gotten outta his car or been on dope (whatever your views on Mary Jane, if it’s illeg in the state it’s illegal, whether you think it should be or not.  Either way it’s dope and shouldn’t be used when operating any vehicle, let alone a race car).

FACT: If Smoke lost his cool (that’s debatable, based on his history...but no matter what us keyboard jockeys think we “know”, only one, Smoke, knows. No matter how smart we are. He has to live with that, right, wrong or indifferent) then he shouldn’t have.

FACT: No matter what our opinion of what happened, NO criminal actions were found during the trial. End of story. That part is OVER, no matter how long we want to drag this deal out whatever our personal opinions are of the situation.

FACT: The Ward family and Tony Stewart have reached an agreement on a settlement on the civil side after much posturing by both sides. Each have stood up for their beliefs in what happened and decided to settle the affair and move on, each for their own reasons. The Wards probably to put closure on the incident and go on with the grieving process. Stewart probably for the same reasons. Again, end of the story.  That part is OVER, no matter how long we want to drag this deal out whatever our personal opinions of the situation. 

FACT: It’s time for us to move on. This deal is done, game, set, match. Hopefully all involved learned from the ordeal as fans, drivers owners alike. 

What the hell kind of fact starts with If?

Your third fact isn't correct.   No criminal actions were found by law enforcement, DA/prosecutor, or the grand jury.   Stewart was never arrested or charged/indicted in any way with anything.    Stewart was never on trial.   

If he was trying to intimidate the kid and it just got out of hand, then it's a crime.    You may have missed my point in saying you don't care about the DA or what crimes were charged.   The whole point is that no crimes of any kind were charged.   So for you to believe that then you have to believe that the NY law enforcement officials, the DA, and the grand jury (all of whom saw exponentially more evidence than you or I have) all got it wrong.   

After the ”if” comes the “He shouldn’t have”. To break it down for ya (I know facts on this board, or in the world these days for that matter need to sometimes be explained or are “fake news&rdquo it’s like this.  If Smoke lost his cool (only he can know that...We can’t and probably never will know that nor will the Ward family) then (here comes that fact, are you ready?) he shouldn’t have lost his cool and thusly “gassed it in anger”. I have my own opinions, but I’m just stating facts that cannot be argued. And I’m putting this deal in the past. 

Nit pick Nit pick.  I’ll reword fact number 3

FACT: No criminal actions were found by law enforcement, DA/Prosecutors, or the Grand Jury. Therefore Tony Stewart was never arrested, charged or indicted in any way shape or form. End of story.

Happy?  Have a good one Dryslick.  All in good humor

LOL....I hear ya.   I think everyone's probably ready to put this one in the past and never hear about it again.

Dryslick I couldn’t agree more. Quite honestly, until the news of the settlement I had successfully forgotten about it. But with rainouts all over where they are racing and another near blizzard yesterday and Through the night then the digging out today here in north central SD that seemingly makes the racing season seem eons away yet, what else do we have to do but torment with how much smarter we are than others. Lol

Boy you have a lot better eyes than I do.  I've probably watched this video a thousand times.  Not because I enjoy watching it but I've tried to watch it from everyone's perspective.  Here's all I've been able to take away from the video.  First off this is a very poor quality video.  Second in the matter of one second, Stewart's car comes into view and he hits Ward, ONE SECOND.  Third there is 20 some cars on the track and Stewart is in turn 2.  I believe the sound is useless as it could have been any of the other cars on the track revving their engine.  And from what i've picked up on from attending races is cars closest to you sound the loudest.  You sure got a lot more from that one second of video than I could.  In one second of video you determined Stewart accelerated, he was sideways and was trying to send a message to Ward.  I'm not saying you're wrong but I don't see any proof one way or the other in the video.  I've watched all the slow motion videos I could find and the only thing I've seen that I could make any judgements on is it looks to me like Ward grabbed Stewarts wing before he was hit, however I can't clearly say that since the video is of such poor quality. 

Also the people who investigate things like this for a living and have a lot more tools at their disposal including another video that never made it on to youtube (if I remember correctly), couldn't find enough evidence to even charge him how are you able to come to that conclusion?

My personal opinion (like it matters lol) Stewart has been a hothead throughout the years, he's done lots of stupid things on the track.  I've watched him wreck someone just for racing him then get out and say "He's an idiot, he doesn't understand give and take, so I wrecked him. And look he wrecked both of our days."  But I've never seen him target anyone (outside of race car) or even threaten anyone .  I don't think he's afraid to punch a guy if that guy would piss him off, but I don't think he would ever want to seriously hurt someone.  But again I don't know and nobody else does either.

I know what you mean with the weather, although I did get in one night of racing at the Devils Bowl Spring Nationals.  I can't imagine enduring winters in South Dakota, I'm too big of a wimp for that.   

So I have always agreed with the majority on this thread that if Ward stayed in the card he is still alive and most (if not all) blame lies on him. I still feel this way but I got to wondering something last night and was hoping for some other opinions

After Tony made contact with Ward... did he stop his car and did he get out of his car? I know each person is different so maybe there is nothing here but I think if I made a large impact with a person on the track whether it be an official, another competitior, crew member,etc... I would at least pull off the track or up the track out of the way and get out to see how the person was or to try to figure out what just happened.

If Tony just kept driving that makes me think he knew the person he hit and was upset with them and  had the "f him shouldn't have been there" mentality. 

Again, I stand on the side of "the kid needed to stay in the car" but this was just something I was pondering the other night

With the containment seats now used in sprints, and the engine noise....did Tony even know he made contact with anything?  Just asking.  I agree with other posters on this, if Ward had stayed in his car and confronted Tony in the pits afterwards, none of this would be a issue.

I don't really care to go back and watch the video but I believe Tony stopped his car about halfway down the backstretch but cars were red flagged immediately after Ward awas struck so everyone had to stop anyway. 

Just a thought. If Tony wasnt revving it up right next to him, how else would Ward be able to fly that far after getting caught up in the tire?

A sprint car idling is not the same as your family car idling.  I once drove a push truck, and I was surprised that I actually had to use a lot of pedal to keep up with the sprint cars on the track.  So while they look slow as hell under caution, there is still a lot of energy in that right rear tire.  

That's a great point.. He may not have known. I thought he had mentioned seeing him and I'm guessing he felt the impact but that's all a guess so well never know. I will again agree Ward should have stayed in the car.

Got ya. That makes sense. I guess if I thought I accidentally hit someone I would have the oh shit moment and go back to check on them under red. If it was one of those cases where he knew who he hit and had the attitude of "well he shouldn't have been there" then that would make sense to stay in the car.

He may have not meant to hit ward but I question if he did everything to avoid him and if he didn't know who was on the track. I do not think however he should be convicted and/or owe money to the family since I do side on the majority of "just stay in your car" for Ward.

the video i saw the day of the issue and was pulled the same day showed keving reaching out with his right hand, grabbing the leading edge of the right hand wing panel.  immediately he oul not hang on, and fell to the ground. being run over by the right rear and killinh him.  end of story...

Ascot was the greatest of all time..

West Capital wasn't half bad either..

Life is good...