Driver Kevin Ward, Jr. Killed In Incident With Tony Stewart

[LBreezie]

Originally Posted by 1LEMayhem

In the video you can hear the engine in Tony's car rev right before the contact. There is no reason for tony to give the car gas at that time other than if he was trying to kick the rear end out and scare him and/or hit him. Tony has a bad temper.

You must never have driven a manual or put your auto in semi-auto. He definitely down shifted to slow down. Try it in your car, it works great and can help in saving you mileage on your brakes.

[Trickskier]

Originally Posted by 1LEMayhem

The sound heard is a short blip of the throttle corresponding exactly to the motion his car makes as he hits Ward.

It was the sound of Tony's car.

No other car on the track would have a reason to blip the throttle at that time.

I've watched and listened to the video several times. The video is being shot from the front straight and the cars are in turn 2 several hundreds of yards away. There's no way the microphone from the device filming the incident could pick up an engine revving that far away. The swerving appears to be from Tony's car running over the driver.

[bandier]

Just watched that video... Damn it. My prays to the Ward and to the Stewart families. One for the loss, the other for the legal woes to follow. I agree running into traffic not a good idea. He was deliberately getting in front of Tony's car. Sad.

[Angrybird 12]

Originally Posted by Trickskier

I've watched and listened to the video several times. The video is being shot from the front straight and the cars are in turn 2 several hundreds of yards away. There's no way the microphone from the device filming the incident could pick up an engine revving that far away. The swerving appears to be from Tony's car running over the driver.

Again I think some people are seeing and hearing things based more on Tony's reputation or their personal feelings about him.
It all boils down to if Kevin Ward had just stayed in his car or not walked into the middle of the track he would still be alive today.

[BigRed585Lbs]

Unless I'm mistaken, sprint cars do not have a transmission as we think of them, but an In/Out box, so no downshifting is likely. It's either in or out of forward drive.

Racing is dangerous because people are involved.
Continue to pray.

[DwRed1LTV6]

Very sad ~

[6bangerBOOM]

It may be worth it to note that the way sound pick up works on hand held cameras. When the camera zooms in on an object the microphone does not do the same. It still has the same pickup pattern (usually a cardiod pattern to mitigate the already loud sounds of the amateur camera operator). The sound we hear as Kevin Ward is struck is likely coming from a vehicle closer to the camera and further from the incident. Also, it seems that Stewart's vehicle swerved in the direction of Ward right at the moment of passing him. This was either from Ward's mass hitting the rear wheel or from Stewart trying to swerve to keep his rear-end from hitting Ward.

[rebelyell22]

Originally Posted by 6bangerBOOM

It may be worth it to note that the way sound pick up works on hand held cameras. When the camera zooms in on an object the microphone does not do the same. It still has the same pickup pattern (usually a cardiod pattern to mitigate the already loud sounds of the amateur camera operator). The sound we hear as Kevin Ward is struck is likely coming from a vehicle closer to the camera and further from the incident. Also, it seems that Stewart's vehicle swerved in the direction of Ward right at the moment of passing him. This was either from Ward's mass hitting the rear wheel or from Stewart trying to swerve to keep his rear-end from hitting Ward.

Not all... My phone has audio zoom. I have 0 doubt that it wasn't intentional

[6bangerBOOM]

Originally Posted by rebelyell22

Not all... My phone has audio zoom. I have 0 doubt that it wasn't intentional

Well then we need to confirm that the video wasn't shot with an LG G2. That technology though would struggle to work in an environment like this. I still think that engine noise was picked up from a vehicle near the camera operator.

[Trickskier]

Originally Posted by Angrybird 12

Again I think some people are seeing and hearing things based more on Tony's reputation or their personal feelings about him.
It all boils down to if Kevin Ward had just stayed in his car or not walked into the middle of the track he would still be alive today.

Agreed.....

[Overflow]

While I think Kevin Ward is just plain stupid for running out in all black, at night, on a dirt track. I believe that Tony Stewart is just a stupid. It's obviously that he had no intent of slowing down and intended to scare Ward by speeding by him.

Still tragic.

[Trentin24]

I've never been in one of these cars or watched them race. But from my experience in driving, it looks and sounds as if Tony saw him last minute, hit the throttle and steered to the right, knowing that this would cause his back right tire to kick away from the 20 year old.
Slamming on the brakes could have caused him to slide and hit him worse. Steering quickly to avoid him could have made it worse, hitting him or another car.
I don't know what the visibility is like in these cars, but it looks like the blue car in front of him had a hard time seeing him as well. He was in a black suit, in front of a black car, on dark dirt. When you are track racing, you aren't looking for other people walking.
It didn't look like the wreck was Tony's fault either, the guy was clearly sliding around the corner, couldn't get it back and the wall is what stopped him from sliding farther. I don't care for NASCAR and don't follow it, I have no bias towards anyone. This is all based on what that video showed.

[BlackIce1066]

Originally Posted by Balok

This is just horrible. Thoughts to the Ward family. It wouldn't surprise me if Tony retires after this regardless of what legal issues might come from it. I have a feeling the repercussions from this will be huge especially in terms of on track antics and retaliation. I totally anticipate that NASCAR will make drivers sit in their cars until safety crews get there and make them go immediately into the ambulance with any type of antics resulting in a penalty. Just my .02.

[Muscle Car Lover]

Just really spent time looking into this, made me sick all day when I heard the news and I didn't really want to see that video.

IMO it was a horrible combination of stupid on both sides. Yes, the two cars did a little dirt track bumping, and Ward's car got wrecked.

-Ward exits his car in a black uniform and goes to yell or what not at Tony's car as it comes by. The white car that passes Ward first gave not indication that he saw Ward and he blows past him, almost hitting him. It was a stupid move to both exit the car and walk down to the racing line, granted the yellow was out.

-I have NO IDEA if Stewart saw Ward then gunned the engine as a "F-U" on the way by or if he didn't see him at all until right at the last second and gunned it to try and miss him. How can anyone know at this point? Tony was stupid to be there at all and then whatever transpired was terrible.

Sad day, and mad props to AJ Allmendinger today for talking about Ward in Victory Lane, that was a class act.

As I have become older it blows my mind, really blows me away that you can spend 20, 30 years building a life, a career, your word and reputation and 60 seconds of poor judgement or emotion can flush it down the toilet like it never existed. Everyone should keep that in mind at all times.