Anybody else here NASCAR fans? Even if you're not, you know the dangers of the sport, and you've probably heard of Tony Stewart. Well Tony is a known "hot head" and is very vocal, self entitled, and opinionated, and the sport loves him for it. He has also been an advocate of sticking to his roots, and participating in the racing he grew up with, Sprint Car Racing, that is done primary on dirt tracks. Last year, he was involved in an accident on a dirt track that made him miss the rest of his NASCAR year, and even though it hurt NASCAR's viewing, reputation, and made it lose one of it's most followed premier drivers for half a season, out of respect for Tony and his strong personal beliefs, they let him continue to participate in the dangerous style of racing outside of their league.
Unfortunately, it caught up with him. Last night, Stewart was participating in a Sprint Car race in Upstate, New York, which eventually led to him striking a driver (who got out of his car to confront Stewart) and
killing the 20 year old.
Stewart, and young and up-and-coming driver Kevin Ward Jr. were racing each other hard, when they got into an accident that sent the young driver spinning out and crashing into the wall. Out of anger and frustration, Ward got out of his car to confront Tony (a very, very common thing among racers in all levels of racing, albeit not very smart, it happens all the time) and was struck and carried 50 feet along the track, after standing in the pathway of the racers car. The 20 year old was pronounced dead at the nearest local hospital, but died instantly upon impact on the track.
A very sad day in the racing community. Stewart withdrew himself from the NASCAR race today and is very shaken, as the incident is being investigated to see if there was any intent involved given Stewart's reputation. I watched the video, and sadly, it's very hard to judge if there was any intent. Another car had to swerve to miss Ward immediately before Tony's car struck him. Some are saying it was a complete accident due to darkness of Ward's fire suit, darkness on the track, and slickness of the dirt track, and some are saying there was clear intent to not avoid the driver at all. There are also some saying that Tony was trying to play "chicken" (for lack of a better term) with the driver as a scare tactic, to show the driver he wasn't going to talk to him on the track, but overestimated the cars ability to stop on time, leading to the tragedy.
I will firmly say that I believe this was 100% an accident. Nobody in the racing community ever wants to see another driver injured, no matter how much they dislike each other, especially at their own hands.
Again, another warning, the following footage may disturb you.
R.I.P. Kevin Ward Jr, OUR THOUGHTS AND PRAYERS ARE WITH YOU AND YOUR FAMILY!
