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NASCAR 2014 Season Omnibus


Rev Ray

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If there was a case to be made it would involve reading minds and that's not likely going to fly and probably shouldn't.  One could make the case that Stewart didn't do enough to avoid him because he didn't want to back down, so he allowed himself to get closer than he should have rather than going out of his way to avoid  Ward.

 

Psychologically, that's believable, that a person doesn't want to give in and so thinks "I'll just fly right by him" and miscalculates.  That is a feeling that a lot of people could even imagine in themselves...no intent to harm, but a stuborn refusal to shrink away form a standoff that is all happening in a matter of a second or two.  But that is something that is impossible to prove without a psychic.  Hell, that happened to fast, whatever decisions were made were made so fast, that even Stewart may not remember the impulses going through his mind in that moment.  He may spend the rest of his life questioning himself. 

 

At best, a prosecutor could make a case that he had a chance to take another line and didn't and is therefore negligent, and plant a seed in a juries mind that there was some prior resentment.  But that kind of clever lawyering and emotional manipulation is...questionable.

 

But none of this is going to change the minds of people who already see this as deliberate.  One way or another, a significant percentage of fans, and maybe some other drivers, are going to believe he did it.

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Of course you can't.  Which is why you shouldn't jump to conclusions. 

 

There are so many circumstances involved.  Dirt tracks are slick as hell.  Night race.  Black suit.  He wasn't far behind another car who narrowly missed the guy, possibly impairing his view. 

 

Yellows don't automatically mean everyone slows to a crawl in racing.  The last F1 race had some situations under yellow that I thought were a bit dicey with some track workers tending to a crashed vehicle / driver.  Sometimes it makes more sense to hit the gas to try and avoid something rather than brake and lock up the steering.  Lots of calculations even for a seasoned racer in split seconds. 

 

So many unknowns.  I can't fathom how anyone is ready to charge Stewart with all sorts of things yet. 

I like your comment, but I love your Italian Spiderman sig.

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But none of this is going to change the minds of people who already see this as deliberate.  One way or another, a significant percentage of fans, and maybe some other drivers, are going to believe he did it.

 

I haven't seen a lot of people saying that Stewart decided to deliberately run over the guy (I'm sure someone out there has).  What I have seen raised is the dual issue of A) the guy decided to walk around on the race track and wave hands at someone in a moving vehicle and B) Stewart seemingly may have gunned said vehicle when reaching said guy.  There isn't much to say about A at this very second as the guy is dead, whatever price was to be paid for that he's more than paid.  NASCAR may want to take this opportunity to pass some rules about this, I'll leave that for another day.

 

If Tony did B in a way that isn't typical of that particular race (i.e. the only reason to rev up there is that Ward was there)... said revving up likely killed him.  Much less an intentional act to kill, he did something he didn't have to do and it directly lead to someone's death (possibly, I'm sure more will be looked into and come out as the next days go by).  Most of us have done stuff like that in our lives, but if luck goes bad and either we die or someone else does because of it you kinda have to face the music.  I don't think Tony is a bad guy because of this... but he may have to go away because of this.

 

Just a wretched situation all around :(

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If Nascar doesn't have some sort of "best interest of the game" type clause in its agreement with its drivers, it needs one now.  The tragedy is beyond my scope to make sense of, but that Tony Stewart had the "choice": to race today was stunning. 

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I'm not going to watch the video, so of any of you have, where on the race track did it occur? A lot of people are saying that Stewart hit the gas. Was he coming out of a corner? Even on a short track and under caution, a driver would still give it some gas to accelerate depending on where he is on the track. Again, I haven't watched the video, so if it's clear this isn't the case let me know. I'm not trying to find excuses for Stewart or anything, just trying to get a better understanding of the circumstances.

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It happened in the middle of the fucking track. Guy gets out of his car, in the middle of a fucking race and runs out waving his arm and pointing angrily. One car in blue barely dodges him and right behind that blue car is Tony Stewart's car, which hits the guy. It should also be pointed out that the guy steps down toward the inside of the track and then as the blue car is passing him, he hops back towards the outside of the track, at which point he gets hit by Stewart.

 

Watching the video, it's hard to see any malicious intent by Stewart, but who the fuck knows. I can say this, while it's unfortunate that Ward died, it was incredibly stupid to do what he did and that's about the dumbest, most reckless thing one could do in the middle of a race. 

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I understand competitive fire and pissed off that someone else's actions has cost you the chance to continue competing (and maybe money), but running across a racetrack down into a curve where there is less room for cars to pass is a horrible decision. This would have been avoided if cooler heads prevailed and Ward stayed beside his car or jumped over the wall to race another day.

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From what little I've seen of NASCAR, the whole running down the track in anger seems to have started a few years ago.  It's insane.  Stewart himself has been guilty of it.  But at least he did it at a larger Sprint track, during the day.  On a smaller dirt track, at night, with dim lighting--it's dangerous and, in this case, fatal.

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On a positive note, it was great to see A.J. Allmendinger win at Watkins Glen today. NASCAR road course racing is fun as hell to watch.

 

Agreed. Listening to him scream over the radio in joy was fairly entertaining, and certainly a feel good moment for someone who made a huge mistake a few years ago after getting the best opportunity of his career. He out-raced the best road course driver in the series on older tires.

 

I also found it a bit self-serving (perhaps understandably so) of Ryan Newman to criticize the facility for not having standard safety walls around the entire track like most of the other tracks do.

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In Newman's defense, people have been complaining about those walls at Watkins Glen for years. Metal barriers, and they are right up close to the track in that section. It looks like they have space to at the very least move the barriers back so a car doesn't spin right back onto the track like his did yesterday.

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Same goes for you. Add something to the discussion, I beg you.

 

Kevin Ward Jr., a New York sprint car driver who was killed Saturday night after an on-track incident with NASCAR driver Tony Stewart, died of "massive blunt trauma," authorities said Monday

Sheriff Philip C. Povero told reporters that the Ontario County medical examiner finished an autopsy on the 20-year-old driver on Monday.

Povero also said investigators were reviewing a second video of the incident in which Stewart's car struck Ward as the young driver stood on the dirt track after a spin out. Ward died of his injuries before an ambulance arrived at a hospital.

The sheriff said the investigation was progressing well, but gave no timeline as to when it would wrap up.

 

 

Maybe the second video will show more of how Stewart's car was reacting prior to the hit.

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Guest The Magnificent 7

You might want to try reading the thread again if you don't think I made any substantive posts in this thread. 

 

Stop being an idiot. 

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  • 1 month later...
Guest The Magnificent 7

Tony Stewart not charged by grand jury (potential charges were 2nd degree manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide).  The driver who was sadly killed in the accident, Kevin Ward, Jr. was under the influence of marijuana to a level of impairment according to the D.A.  / toxicology report. 

 

http://ttp://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nascar/2014/09/24/tony-stewart-not-indicted-charged-in-kevin-ward-jr-death/15712979/

 

 

Tantillo said two videos of the incident were examined, a clip that went viral on YouTube and another from the racetrack. The videos were run at 75%, 50% and 25% speed and overlaid with grids and data and "were an important piece of the evidence," Tantillo said. "The videos did not demonstrate any aberrational driving by Tony Stewart until the point of impact with Kevin Ward, at which point his vehicle veered to the right up the track as a result of the collision. Prior to that, his course was pretty straight."

 

I imagine there will more than likely be a civil suit.

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