[NASCAR] Tony Stewart apparently runs over opposing driver

Actually, I take that back. His car didn't decelerate (hardly) at all. It merely bounced back to the left after impact.

 

No it doesn't.

 

It's a photo finish for sure. The giveaway is that Stewart's car fishtails prior to impact, then during and after impact noticeably picks up speed... the engine roar is heard as this is happening.

 

It may be that he hit the throttle to avoid ward.Yes hitting the throttle causes drift, but it also is how they turn

http://m.kwch.com/news/local-racers-explain-sprint-cars-and-dangers/27403220

Campbell said sprint cars are different than normal cars because they don’t turn with just the steering wheel. He said a driver has to give the car gas.

“Once you give it gas, the car kind of does pull to the left a little bit,” Campbell said.

Former racer Rodney White said, “Those cars turn on the throttle. You'll hear that a lot and basically what that means is to get the car to turn, you have to hit the gas. They don't necessarily turn with the steering wheel.”

 

I'm not really sure how you guys can look at that video and come to any other conclusion than Stewart did accelerate.

The motion of the car, the increase in speed, and the noise of the engine.

I guess maybe he caught a wicked tailwind all the sudden or something... accompanied by some other car randomly gunning its engine during a caution flag. Not to mention all the eye witnesses who corroborate Stewart as hitting the gas in the incident.

Is there a foot pedal mounted video camera? No. But it takes a pretty generous amount of doubt benefit to think Stewart didn't hit the gas in that clip.

 

I'm not ruling that out, but I find it hard to believe due to the timing and circumstance. I addressed that "oh crap, I better hit the gas!" scenario in some earlier posts.

That will likely be his defense if it ever does get down to brass tacks.

 

Indeed, Stewart may have hit the gas, but you steer sprint cars with the throttle more than with the steering wheel.

http://blog.caranddriver.com/yes-to...r-racer-but-you-need-to-know-the-whole-story/

 

I have no doubt about that, but whether he did it to avoid him or did it out of malice (i.e. to throw dirt on him, scare him, etc) is what is to be seen. Given how the cars handle (or just the physics of it in general) and the fact Stewart is an experienced driver, I find the later to be more likely than the former. It will be really interesting to see how other drivers get involved in the investigation and possible court case, should it get that far.

 

I don't know how we can ever prove intent

 

http://www.latimes.com/sports/sportsnow/la-sp-sn-nascar-stewart-tragedy-20140812-story.html

Another driver in the sprint-car race in which the car of NASCAR star Tony Stewart struck and killed fellow racer Kevin Ward Jr. while Ward was on foot said he passed Ward moments before the fatal incident.

After contact with Stewart's sent Ward's car into the fence, Ward climbed out and walked on the track at Canandaigua Motorsports Park in upstate New York on Saturday night.

While apparently gesturing angrily toward Stewart as the cars circled back around the dirt track, Ward, 20, was struck by Stewart's car.

Moments earlier, "I drove right by him," driver Paul Kinney told NBC News, referring to Ward. "He looked a little bit angry. I didn't think much of it. A lot of drivers do that."

Kinney said it was "obviously not a racing incident. It's not a good idea to get out of your car and run toward other cars. But nobody can speak for Tony. Only Tony knows exactly what happened."

Kinney added that as he passed by Ward, "I seen Kevin clear as day. Nobody else ran into him, either."

Amateur video of the incident has sparked widespread public debate about who might have been at fault. Kinney said he watched the video once and does not want to see it again.

Local authorities reiterated Monday that there were no criminal charges pending against Stewart but that their investigation continues.

Stewart has not commented publicly on what happened but issued a statement saying, "There aren't words to describe the sadness I feel about the accident."

Funeral services for Ward were scheduled for Thursday at a high school in Turin, N.Y.

 

http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showpost.php?p=9177656&postcount=84

 

I don't know if intent is needed to prove the charge that may be pursued.

Might just require wreckless behavior, or something like that.

The article I posted earlier has a salient point though that Stewart will have zero interest in this going to court, regardless of the facts, so a huge settlement with no admission of wrongdoing is the likely outcome.

 

"His first on-track altercation in the Cup series took place in his rookie year at Martinsville Speedway in Virginia. Racing against a field that included Dale Earnhardt Sr., Stewart mixed it up with Kenny Irwin.

"We were rivals from open-wheel racing," Stewart says. "We knew if we were at the same racetrack, we'd have to beat each other to win, and we just got in a shoving match in race cars. Every time one of us would hit the other, it was harder than the one before. Eventually Kenny crashed me bad enough to where I couldn't get it to move."

When that happened, Stewart's No. 20 car came to a smoldering stop across the center of the corner. He got out and stood angrily on the track waiting for Irwin's car to pass under caution. The crowd erupted: The balls on this rookie!

"I reached in his car and tried to grab hold of him," says Stewart. "Wasn't a very smart thing to do. The funny thing is, Dale Earnhardt was in front of Kenny's car, and Earnhardt slows down to a crawl to give me time to get to Kenny. So the old man was working with me there." Irwin was killed the next year during a practice run in New Hampshire."


Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/culture...ascars-nastiest-driver-20140810#ixzz3ACQjRzDC
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So as a rookie "Smoke" did something very similar to what Ward did... "Smoke" even tried to stick his hand inside the other race car coming down the track.

CREEPY!

 

Well if DonnyMost & i were on that jury, we'd simply use physics, along with our knowledge of how these race cars handle & tony stewart's skill/experience to determine EXACTLY what his intentions were.

DonnyMOst would be the jury foreman, computing probabilities & diagramming lines of sight etc. on the dry erase board, but I'd be standing right up there with him, making sure the other jurors were shutting up & paying attention.

 

You wouldn't make it on the jury

 

LOL.

As long as they give us Chipotle for lunch.

 

Not sure what's so "creepy" ... Kinney said in his statement ,"He looked a little bit angry. I didn't think much of it. A lot of drivers do that."

I think after this race track officials need to institute a zero tolerance policy for this type of behavior and automatic suspensions/fines for drivers getting out of their cars to confront another driver who is still actively involved in the race.

 

Vehicular manslaughter would be the likely charge..and prosecution doesn't have to prove intent to get there.

I'm not saying that's what happened...just addressing the idea that they'd have to prove intent.

 

We won't ever be able to, but he knows what his intent was. I don't if he was trying to kill him, but it sure looks like he didn't care either way.

 

It is very difficult to tell if he really accelerated to me. Video is too zoomed in to get a clear view. Also the sound of the engine could be from a car right in front of him, it would be pretty hard for the sound to be picked up via camera from that distance.