Tony Stewart killed a 20 year old dirt track driver....

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bradley

Diamond Member
Jan 9, 2000
3,671
2
81
sao123 said:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQYlWDcMFJo
Watch the first 7 seconds of this video and pay attention to the sound of the carts passing close to the camera man.
This is the same volume and level of engine you hear just before Tony hits the man. You cant hear Tony's engine Rev, its too far away.
You hear carts as they pass immediately in from the camera out of the range of the far zoom.

you can see, there is no swerve until after the driver has been hit. Frames 11 to 15, especially 14/15. Contact was made in frame 9/10. This swerve I believe is from the force of the impact itself. You can also see in various frames the driver being dragged until he is finally deposited later down the track.


Here is the frame by frame of the actual hit. (01 - 40)
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I don't know if anyone noticed frame 49, you can clearly see a gunman on the grassy knoll.
 
rockyct

rockyct

Diamond Member
Jun 23, 2001
6,656
32
91
railer said:
Both share the blame equally IMO.

ROFL. OK...plz link to the video that you saw.

The video that I saw, shows some dumbass in a dark uniform running around zig-zagging on a dark track, with race cars, on a dirt track no less, zooming around him.
If situation happened with any other nameless driver in the universe, it would just be a horrible accident and the victim would rightly be 100% to blame. But because the driver is a name-brand guy, the nutters and conspiracy cooks are coming out of the woodwork to chime in.

Here's a pro-tip for the dumb asses in this thread: If you don't want to get run over on a dirt track at night, keep your dumb ass in or near your car, and not running around a race track like Barry Sanders. Morons.
Oh and before some other pea-brain chimes in: I could give two F's about Nascar or Tony Stewart.
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Yeah, I don't get a crap about Nascar so I have no idea what is going on here except an idiot getting out of his car and running around while other cars are zooming by. I honestly didn't know that was a thing that drivers did (or is this usual?) nor do I know the history of either of the drivers. Maybe their history matters, but I don't see anything in the video that clearly proves vehicular manslaughter.
 
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thedarkwolf

Diamond Member
Oct 13, 1999
9,036
129
106
The only connection it has to Nascar is that Stewart races in Nascar. Many of the drivers from Nascar race in other series. Stewart is a huge dirt track junky and own Eldora Speedway one of the more is not most famous tracks.
 
waggy

waggy

No Lifer
Dec 14, 2000
68,143
10
81
LTC8K6 said:
Accidents aren't necessarily free from criminal charges, though.

The track looks dry and hard to me, not mud.
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you are 100% right. no mud. its a DIRT track. so yeah DRY and HARD and covered IN DIRT.
 
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BikeJunkie

Golden Member
Oct 21, 2013
1,390
0
0
SSSnail said:
Do you have another video source? Because I don't see what you described in the video linked here.
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What Meghan has said is 100% accordance with eye witness accounts. Check out Deadspin, CNN, or any other source. They all say the same thing: Steward gunned it when he passed ward, and apparently, Sprint racing 101 tells us that this will kick out the back end 100% of the time.
 
xBiffx

xBiffx

Diamond Member
Aug 22, 2011
8,232
2
0
edro said:
Did Tony know they were under caution?
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I am sure he knew that they were under caution because by that time he would have crossed the start/finish line and flag stand. Its not certain that he knew WHY they were under caution. This is why most drivers remain with their vehicle until crews are on site and track conditions have stabilized.
 
xBiffx

xBiffx

Diamond Member
Aug 22, 2011
8,232
2
0
edro said:
How do you know he didn't pass a few? The video is focused on the nut case.
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He may have, but I highly doubt it. You get penalized for passing when the yellow is out. But as you said, we can't know for sure based on the video.
 
LTC8K6

LTC8K6

Lifer
Mar 10, 2004
28,520
1,576
126
edro said:
How do you know he didn't pass a few? The video is focused on the nut case.
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If he had sped past cars under caution and then hit Ward, the fans would have lynched him...

We would have certainly heard that Tony was speeding past other cars.

No one has mentioned that as far as I know.
 
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blackdogdeek

Lifer
Mar 14, 2003
14,453
10
81
I was originally agreeing that Stewart gunned his engine to kick out the back end purposefully. But then I started thinking that would only be the case if he knew that the person in the black outfit coming at him on a dimly lit turn was DEFINITELY the guy he put into the wall and knew that he was coming at him to yell at him. I find it hard to believe that he was absolutely sure about the identity of that driver and now feel he was surprised by there being a person suddenly in front of his car and most likely gunned it to avoid the driver on the track.
 
disappoint

disappoint

Lifer
Dec 7, 2009
10,132
382
126
Man that sport sucks...they play....

dirty.

380.gif


Speaking of Horatio Caine...what exactly is the ho ratio at a dirt track event like that? Is it 3 to 1 hoes or 4 to 1 hoes? Got to be in that ballpark, right?
 
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edro

edro

Lifer
Apr 5, 2002
24,326
68
91
blackdogdeek said:
I was originally agreeing that Stewart gunned his engine to kick out the back end purposefully. But then I started thinking that would only be the case if he knew that the person in the black outfit coming at him on a dimly lit turn was DEFINITELY the guy he put into the wall and knew that he was coming at him to yell at him. I find it hard to believe that he was absolutely sure about the identity of that driver and now feel he was surprised by there being a person suddenly in front of his car and most likely gunned it to avoid the driver on the track.
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Eh, I think Tony was experienced enough to KNOW he put that guy into the wall.
I also believe he could see him walking towards him throwing his arms up and he gunned it to scare the kid and accidentally hit him.

My opinion doesn't matter though and is based on near nothing.
 
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blackdogdeek

Lifer
Mar 14, 2003
14,453
10
81
edro said:
Eh, I think Tony was experienced enough to KNOW he put that guy into the wall.
I also believe he could see him walking towards him throwing his arms up and he gunned it to scare the kid and accidentally hit him.

My opinion doesn't matter though and is based on near nothing.
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To be fair, my opinion doesn't really matter either and I'm definitely speculating.

I don't doubt that Stewart knew he put that guy into the wall especially since they were under caution. What I doubt is whether or not he knew there was a person on the track and further, who that person was. He might not have known whether or not his actions led to other cars hitting the wall and whether there might have been other drivers who exited their cars.
 
HumblePie

HumblePie

Lifer
Oct 30, 2000
14,665
440
126
When I watch the video in slow motion on youtube, it is clear that Tony's car does not swerve or move off his line until impact with Ward was made. The swerve is the result of the tires driving over uneven surfaces. In this case, 3 tires are connected with the road, and the fourth tire is connected with Ward's body. That will cause the swerve seen in the video. The video also shows that no new acceleration was made by Tony's car in that turn either as the distance per frame the vehicle travels does not increase. Lack of distance traveled = no acceleration prior to impact.

The engine "gunning" noise people supposedly hear could be from any other vehicle on the track. Most likely from a closer vehicle to the camera man and not Tony's car on the far side of the turn away from the camera man. It could have been the engine of the safety crew trying desperately to get to Ward to stop him in order to save him from himself. Considering the safety crew is coming from where the camera man sits, this is the most likely possibility for the increased engine noise.

I do not see any indication when I watch the video frame by frame of any action taken by Tony that could be seen as anything that would have resulted in this tragedy. He neither sped up, not throttled the engine when next to Ward. Ward can me seen as coming clearly into the line of his vehicle on the track.
 
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tcsenter

Lifer
Sep 7, 2001
18,949
575
126
xBiffx said:
Also very possible. Since it was a dirt track its not like they can turn on a dime. Also, since it was a turn on a dirt track, the way the drivers turn is to hit the throttle.
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To "turn" yes, but not to change your line along a straight away or even coming OUT of turn with the car pointed down the straight-away. I think you're confusing (maybe deliberately) "turning" and changing lines. If you are on a two-lane highway @ 40MPH, you want to change lanes from the right lane to the left lane, is this considered a "turn"? You can't "turn" these cars or get them around a bend at speed without a combination of the steering wheel, throttle and sometimes one of the brakes (front or rear). But you can change lines using the steering, especially at slower non-race speeds.

You seem to think this happened under full race conditions, or that the only way these cars can be steered at ANY speed is to get the rear end moving to point the car in the direction you want to go. The driver in front of Stewart changed his line (i.e. toward the inside) just fine without having this excuse that these cars can only be steered from the rear (as though they have NO front steering at all).

Here is an example of a driver who actually swerves AT another driver who got out of his car and was coming at him to confront him on foot. Of course I do not argue that Stewart intended to strike him, but rather an intimidation move that went wrong.
 
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