As drivers zipped around the Canandaigua Motorsports Park at exceptionally high speeds on Aug. 9, Kevin Ward Jr.’s No. 13 sprint car collided into the track’s wall. The 20-year-old authoritatively escaped his unresponsive car and started walking toward oncoming traffic. As the yellow caution flag waved, Ward was struck and killed by a distinguished opponent: 16-year veteran and three-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Tony Stewart.
Stewart’s right rear tire hit the New York native, sending the displaced driver swiftly through the air. After the collision, Ward lay on the track, motionless. He was pronounced dead later that day, due to “massive blunt trauma,” according to a NASCAR report.
Immediately following the incident, Stewart’s future — both in and away from racing — appeared bleak. Accidents happen in competitive racing (and especially NASCAR) all the time. In fact, 68 fatal accidents have been recorded since 1948, averaging about one death per year. Many spectators, though, thought this particular “accident “ was far from unintentional.
Ward and Stewart were racing side by side heading into a turn; Ward crashed into the wall as a direct result. In the frightening video (which I have unfortunately watched multiple times), Ward gestured something to Stewart as he walks towards Stewart’s oncoming car. Most troubling of all, in the video, as Stewart’s car emerges on screen (and immediately before Ward is hit), the sound of a car’s throttle roars.
There were two charges against Stewart submitted for the grand jury’s consideration: second degree manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide. The Ontario County District Attorney’s office declared on Sept. 24 that Stewart will not face criminal charges for the events that occurred on that fateful August night. Additionally, toxicology reports showed that Kevin Ward was under enough influence of marijuana to impair judgment.
I’m skeptical to believe that Stewart intentionally hit a fellow passionate driver with the metal death trap that is a sprint car. With a 410ci engine and outputs of up to 1100 horsepower, these machines can exceed 140 miles per hour easily and take out nearly anything in their path.
Firstly, I believe that it is always a terrible idea to walk down a racetrack before all cars have reached default caution speed. Many cars, including Stewart’s, were not at a low enough speed for caution regulations.
Following Ward’s death, NASCAR has issued a new rule, stating that drivers must remain inside their car if an incident “leaves it stopped on or near the racing surface.”econdly, there is no proof that Stewart purposely ran Ward over. There are eyewitness accounts that condemn Stewart as a cold-blooded murderer, and based on the video evidence I’ve seen, I cannot exactly blame them.
Wendi Ward, Kevin’s aunt, wrote a letter to the public addressing the situation. Obviously under extreme emotional distress, she questions why Kevin’s toxicology report was even an issue and why Stewart’s car was not impounded.
I believe that Ward’s influence of marijuana at the time should not play any factor whatsoever into the ruling. If Stewart was arrested for homicide or manslaughter, and then later on, tests discovered Ward had used banned substances, I highly doubt Stewart would be released.
Stewart should have received some extent of testing. Though the thought of a professional driver abusing substances before a race seems ludicrous, since Stewart was facing criminal charges, the accident should have retrospectively been treated as a crime scene. Additionally, it perturbs me that Stewart’s car was not impounded. Evidence must be collected at any crime scene, and since Stewart was facing criminal charges, evidence must be collected and examined thoroughly.
Tony Stewart adores sprint car racing. After suffering a leg injury that kept him sidelined for most of the 2013 season, he was eager to return to his favorite activity. It seems very unlikely he would simultaneously throw away a passion of his and become a murderer, no matter how frustrated he may have been.
Stewart never would have even considered giving up sprint car racing before the accident. It’s how his NASCAR career began, where he got his big break. After his crash in 2013 dealt him a broken leg, Stewart invested about $110,000 on brand new fire suits and helmets for almost 50 drivers who needed upgraded safety gear.
After the accident, though, Stewart remains unsure about his future.
“It’s going to be a long time before you ever see me in a sprint car again, if ever. I don’t have any desire at this moment to get back in a car,” Stewart said to the Associated Press following the grand jury’s decision.
“If I had the decision to go right now to a race, I wouldn’t. I don’t even know when I’ll go to a sprint car race again to watch. I can promise you it’s going to be a long time before you ever see me back in one.”
Mike,
Tony Stewart hit Kevin Ward with the rear right side of his vehicle (not the front). This is because he hit the throttle while passing by him in order to scare (bully) him. Stewart was not going to be shown up by Ward standing on the track and “calling him out”.
Tony Stewart did not intend to hit and kill (or even injure) Ward. But he did. Stewart’s reckless bullying tactic backfired. He should have been brought up on some type of criminal charges. Unfortunately, because a banned substance was found in Ward’s blood the Grand Jury had an “easy out”, namely, blame it on the victim.
Stewart has done all the “correct” things since: seclusion, regret, mourning, skipping races. Probably because he really does feel terrible about what he did. Regardless I don’t feel as though justice was served.
Sincerely, Phil
This is overall a good article and one of the few fair ones out there that doesn’t distort the facts of the incident. The only nitpick is that ESS runs under 360ci engine rules so about 700hp.
I think the thing that has been most disappointing to me about the way the case was covered and handled was the opaqueness of the facts and investigation, as well as all the misinformation that has been spread, even from people inside the racing community.
The nexus of the entire controversy hinges on the rationale for Tony Stewart hitting the throttle before approaching Kevin Ward. This was a contributing and necessary factor of the death. That is the crux of the matter and the piece of information that, even today, we still have zero facts about. As such, people have been forced to fill in answers with speculation. Some plausible, some outrageously unrealistic. Tony Stewart and his PR and legal teams had an obligation to reveal this information immediately, for the sake of justice towards both parties involved. By failing to do so, theories contrary to the truth of what happened have sprouted and taken root in people’s minds, and these have caused harm to Stewart, Ward, and Ward’s family.
No doubt the legal team claimed that Stewart should not make any statements during the criminal investigation, and now subsequently before any civil lawsuit, because these comments could be used in a case against him. But how does that make sense? Tony Stewart claims that it was 100% an accident, and that the fullness of facts (which he acknowledges none of us have) exonerates him completely. If the facts exonerate him, he should have been eager to present them to the world so that any controversy could be immediately squashed. If he did no wrong, a truthful statement could not be used against him. As it stands now, by keeping the full truth under blanket, his legal team gives the distinct impression that they are hiding something. And this doesn’t settle well with a public that is already skeptical of powerful celebrities.
In the same vein, the DA didn’t do the world any favors by publicly discussing Ward’s toxicology report without revealing specific, precise numbers, so that people could draw accurate conclusions. Instead he used unreasonably vague, open-to-interpretation language that has people speculating that Ward was anywhere from being completely stoned while driving to hitting a joint a day or two before. This poor decision by the DA has taken an incident that had many unknowns and muddied the waters even further. Again, a remarkable lack of transparency in a case of both severe consequence (a fatality) and high visibility (racing celebrity).
I will not draw any definite, firm conclusions until I, myself, have seen all of the facts. And currently Tony Stewart holds them under wraps.
Does the sheriff’s office intend to ever reveal the results of its investigation?
Tony Stewart hit Kevin Ward with the right rear tire. Until that moment, according to the District Attorney and all video evidence (two videos, one from a spectator and one from the track’s own video feed) which was examined not only by a forensic expert for the Defense but one for the District Attorney’s office, Tony Stewart maintained a straight path following the car in front of him. The driver directly in front of Tony Stewart had to swerve to avoid missing Kevin Ward himself. Between the time that the first car swerved to avoid Kevin Ward and the time that the right rear tire of Tony Stewart’s car hit Kevin Ward was approximately 1.6 seconds based on the video and agreed upon by all experts who examined the video for the grand jury.
Now explain to me where there was a reckless bullying tactic in there? Tony Stewart didn’t swerve toward Kevin Ward in any of the videos. And a driver directly in front of Stewart barely avoided hitting Ward himself. If he did hit the throttle, this is, according to the experts on the matter, how you would turn a car of this type on a dirt track but seems to go against the idea that he ‘stayed on a fairly straight path until after he hit Kevin Ward’.
Facts, not feelings.
I am not a forensic expert so when a forensic expert (or 2) and 22 other witnesses tell me that there simply is not evidence to indict Tony Stewart, I tend to lean toward believing them. A Grand Jury of peers from around that county and town, some of whom may have cheered for Kevin Ward or known his family, leaned toward believing them.
I won’t even address the idea that the young man may, or may not, have been impaired at the time. Only he knows that and he will never now be able to tell us that. Yes, I know many would argue that the drug testing tells us that but again, in the end, only he knows.
What matters, in the end, is that someone made a very, very poor decision to get out of their car and walk on to a live track. An immensely tragic accident occurred and now everyone (his family, Tony Stewart, the fans who were there that night, the track owner) has to live with it. I don’t care how many people have done it before. I don’t care how many people will do it in the future. It would be my hope that those people realize the dangerous and reckless behavior they had been a part of, introspectively look forward and not do it again.
In the end, regardless, it is and always will be a poor decision to angrily walk out on to a live track and this highlights why. What if two cars had bumped that night and hit him as they were trying to recover from bumping one another? Would we be saying anything other than it was a terrible tragedy? What if it hadn’t been Tony Stewart but another driver? Would we still be screaming murder? What if he hadn’t gotten hit that night; would it have made him braver about jumping out of the car again?
What if…what if…
There are no winners here.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nascar/2014/09/24/ontario-county-district-attorney-news-conference-transcript-tony-stewart-grand-jury/16167613/
Mike, you say you’re skeptical to believe that old smoky boy intentionally hit a fellow driver. But why do you limit the analysis to that one option? And I’m not singling you out for this. The vast majority of news writers who have written stories on this topic have limited the analysis to the “intentionally hit” scenario and ruled it out as hard to believe. But why not focus on the much more believable scenario of old smoky boy intentionally gunning the engine in order to swing his right rear as close to Ward as possible in an attempt to intimidate him and spray him with dirt? I mean, he is labeled as “Nascar’s nastiest driver”. He has a history of inability to control his aggression.