Tony Stewart Kills Driver on Track

[Carp]

If I am driving down the road, and there is someone biking or walking and I don't see them and I hit & kill them, it is still an accident. You can bet your ass I'd be in jail for it.

Just because it happened on a racetrack doesn't make it much different at all. It didn't happen during the course of a car accident (I.e. Dale Sr.), it happened under caution, when cars are supposed to slow down and drivers are supposed to be even more attentive to the situation around them, especially right at the site of the accident, with the driver out of his car. On top of that, TS is arguably in the top few dozen professional racers/drivers in the world. He knows how cars work, how to handle them, how to proceed under caution, and to stay alert.

Intent aside, TS ran over killed a guy; accident or not, he needs to be held accountable for Kevin Ward's death.

That is not even remotely similar. If someone went strolling down the center of an interstate and you hit and killed them, there is zero chance you go to jail (well assuming you weren't drunk or high or driving on a suspended license).

This kid walked down into the center of traffic. More than 1 car had to swerve to just avoid Ward HIMSELF standing in the middle of the track. Remember his wrecked car was at the top of the track so it isn't like they could avoid him by going high either. Hell another car almost hit Ward while he was still up towards the top of the track (check out the video around the 30 second mark) And besides that, there is an inherent risk to being a race car driver. When you step out of your car on the track while the race is going on, that risks becomes much greater. When you walk down into on-coming traffic, the risk is multiplied exponentially.

 

[ESP47]

And as said numerous times, accelerating actually helps you steer on a dirt track. The kid was standing right at the end of a curve. When taking a curve on a dirt track, you steer away from the direction you want to go and you accelerate. So if he saw Ward at the last moment coming off the curve and was trying to avoid him, then that would not be uncommon or strange to see Stewart accelerate.

Under caution, none of that applies. They drive like a regular car. No need to accelerate or turn right. They aren't going fast enough under yellow to need to do any of that.

It's like Moto GP bikers who lean all the way down through the curves. They do it at full speed to keep their momentum up. They don't do it when cruising around under yellow because it's not necessary and wouldn't work at that speed anyway.

I have no idea what Stewart was doing there. The car that passes him right before Stewart obviously lets off the gas and swerves to the left like anyone would do if they didn't see someone right before they popped in front of their car. Stewart is cruising at caution speed and then accelerates as he gets right next to Ward Jr. It looks like he was just trying to get close and scare him or maybe kick some dirt up at him. It may not have been on purpose but it most definitely wasn't a case of a guy appearing in front of Tony and Tony accelerating to avoid him. That makes zero sense.

 

[Carp]

Under caution, none of that applies. They drive like a regular car. No need to accelerate or turn right. They aren't going fast enough under yellow to need to do any of that.

It's like Moto GP bikers who lean all the way down through the curves. They do it at full speed to keep their momentum up. They don't do it when cruising around under yellow because it's not necessary and wouldn't work at that speed anyway.

I have no idea what Stewart was doing there. The car that passes him right before Stewart obviously lets off the gas and swerves to the left like anyone would do if they didn't see someone right before they popped in front of their car. Stewart is cruising at caution speed and then accelerates as he gets right next to Ward Jr. It looks like he was just trying to get close and scare him or maybe kick some dirt up at him. It may not have been on purpose but it most definitely wasn't a case of a guy appearing in front of Tony and Tony accelerating to avoid him. That makes zero sense.

I didn't say Stewart wasn't trying to scare him. It certainly looks that way. And I tend to think he might.

Of course, we only have a partial view from a shaky camera. But people commenting on this unfamiliar with racing (like Zito) look silly. There were plenty of cars speeding by Ward prior to him walking down the track. Look at the video again. The car in front of Tony was really the only car that hit his brakes hard (probably because the guy was walking in front of him).

And yes, while unlikely as it may seem, acceleration is used to steer Sprint cars. This link speaks about that

 

[ESP47]

I didn't say Stewart wasn't trying to scare him. It certainly looks that way. And I tend to think he might.

Of course, we only have a partial view from a shaky camera. But people commenting on this unfamiliar with racing (like Zito) look silly. There were plenty of cars speeding by Ward prior to him walking down the track. Look at the video again. The car in front of Tony was really the only car that hit his brakes hard (probably because the guy was walking in front of him).

And yes, while unlikely as it may seem, acceleration is used to steer Sprint cars. This link speaks about that

I know you didn't say that, it was just my own opinion. Almost all the cars going by Ward were going by at caution speed. Look at the difference in how the cars go through the turn when him and Tony are side by side vs. how they are cruising past his wrecked car.

You and the guy who wrote that article aren't thinking about caution speed vs. green flag speed. Acceleration is absolutely not used to steer a sprint car at caution speeds. Just like turning right isn't used at caution speeds. These aren't magical cars. You have to be going full speed for any of that to be useful. Sprint cars don't accelerate and turn right because they have to or because they're built to only drive like that. They accelerate and turn right because it's the quickest way around the race track. The car wont even handle correctly if you try and do that at 30-40 mph. The same way you'll fall on your ass if you try and touch your knee to the ground around a curve on a bike going slow. The physics just don't apply at slow speeds. Sprint cars needing to accelerate or turn right is a complete non issue here because the incident happened under caution and not under green.

 

[Carp]

And that's a valid point, but I don't agree that a these cars (at least most visible on the video) were going that slow even with the yellow flag. A couple were, but I noticed at least 3 cars continue on at fairly high paces even with Ward out of the car and walking on the track. Though Stewart admittedly was going faster than any of them (hence the suspicion that he was trying to scare or taunt Ward).

 

[zitothebrave]

The Carpe owning in this thread is epic. Of course it's just par for the course when your IQ is lower than a rock.

I love how he claims I'm pretending to be an expert when all I'm doing is citing what people who know way more than he or I have said. Aka racers who were on the track that day. You harped on the accelerating to turn thing and ESP crammed that down your throat. Now you're judging relative speed on a video without a solid reference point. Holy ****.

 

[Carp]

You haven't cited anybody, in this thread. Not even once. And at no time did I ever say that i didn't think Stewart was might have been trying to scare/taunt him. As I said, it certainly seems that way, but it's too hard to tell either way because of a # of factors involved.

Your reading comprehension is horrendous, as usual.

 

[jgriff3029]

Experts (Drivers) defending Tony Stewart:
In an interview with TWC News, Sprint Car racer Cory Sparks gave his thoughts and also defended Tony Stewart.

"From what I saw, Tony did everything in his power to turn down away from Kevin to avoid him," said Sparks. He also hit on the speculation surrounding Stewart revving his engine seconds before the impact.

Sparks noted that in Sprint Cars, in order to steer those machines, you need the rear wheels as much as you need the steering wheel. He believes that Tony got on the throttle to turn down away from Ward, which would explain the reports suggesting that the front of the car missed the 20-year-old racer, but not the right rear.

Mark Tychoniewicz:

i have driven these cars,the right side board on the top wing will block out an entire car let alone a person standing there,i now work on the 45 car in the video and the driver said he just saw him at the last second and just missed him,Tony had even less time to react to the situation.people in the stands or watching this video have no idea how fast these thing happen and how limited our view is inside the car.it was a very bad turn of events that happened but we all know the dangers involved in the sport we love.

link: http://www.motorsport.com/sprint/news/sprint-car-racers-give-their-take-on-tragedy-and-defend-tony-stewart

 

[Carp]

Experts (Drivers) defending Tony Stewart:
In an interview with TWC News, Sprint Car racer Cory Sparks gave his thoughts and also defended Tony Stewart.

"From what I saw, Tony did everything in his power to turn down away from Kevin to avoid him," said Sparks. He also hit on the speculation surrounding Stewart revving his engine seconds before the impact.

Sparks noted that in Sprint Cars, in order to steer those machines, you need the rear wheels as much as you need the steering wheel. He believes that Tony got on the throttle to turn down away from Ward, which would explain the reports suggesting that the front of the car missed the 20-year-old racer, but not the right rear.

Mark Tychoniewicz:

i have driven these cars,the right side board on the top wing will block out an entire car let alone a person standing there,i now work on the 45 car in the video and the driver said he just saw him at the last second and just missed him,Tony had even less time to react to the situation.people in the stands or watching this video have no idea how fast these thing happen and how limited our view is inside the car.it was a very bad turn of events that happened but we all know the dangers involved in the sport we love.

link: http://www.motorsport.com/sprint/news/sprint-car-racers-give-their-take-on-tragedy-and-defend-tony-stewart

Surely this driver is false. I mean Zito says no one agrees with me and that I am "owned" and Zito obviously knows way more than this actual driver.