North Carolina Tar Heels

[Jungle Rat]

No way. Even the other racers on that track said the guy was stupid for doing what he did.

[Dave23]

Anyone who leaves their car to roam the track during a race is a fool.

[AlabamAlum]

Yeah, running around the track trying to fight because you think you were bumped is stupid.

[hedge]

Is it grounds to murder someone, though? I mean, besides IB...

[crashcourse]

no doubt the kid was stupid

but there will be legal action against stewart likely civil trial

and if the DA there gets pressure or is a publicity hound--woundnt doubt a criminal charge

there is no way he did it on purpose but theres a bunch of people/press playing this up as stewart becuase of his past might have seen the guy out of his car waving his arms/flipping him off and decided to fuck with him and miscalculated. Personally I think stewart didnt even realize the guy was there until 2 seconds before inpact and accelrated and turned his steering well left to avoid him

but there at least will be a lawsuit likely settled out of court for some bucks

[claver2010]

Is it grounds to murder someone, though? I mean, besides IB...

The bigger punishment for IB is to NOT kill him and make him continue to live his sad life.

[AlabamAlum]

I don't believe it was intentional. So, its not murder, imo. The car fishtailed, but that could be as a result of Mr. Arm-Waving Guy getting hit. Or just the nature of these cars.

I'm not a racing fan. Couldn't care less about the sport, but this was the guy losing his head with anger and paying for it with his life. He's certainly not the first.

[hedge]

" Personally I think stewart didnt even realize the guy was there until 2 seconds before inpact and accelrated and turned his steering well left to avoid him"

Seems to me it would be very hard to disprove that. I'm sure Stewart's lawyers understand that...

[aTm]

A winged sprint has a much bigger wheel on the right side of the car than on the left. The car is designed to turn left under power (the larger wheel stagger on the right hand side pushes the right side of the car further than the wheels on the left push the left side of the car resulting in the car basically automatically steering left under power. I think the most likely thing is that Stewart didn't see him, and then when he did he tried to avoid him quickly, and with this particular car, steering left to avoid something on your right means hitting the accelerator maybe more than it does turning the wheel.

Stewart's car was following relatively closely behind another car under caution, when I watched the video the first time, I though the accident was going to be him getting creamed by the car that goes by before who also appears to suddenly try and dodge him. Stewart doesn't have as clear a view since he's got another car in front of him, so he may have been suddenly surprised. The cars also have a wing on top that has side panels, and the one on the drivers right extends down below the wing, sometimes down in the extreme into the drivers vision, while the one on the left extends up above the wing.



Stewart may not have had any idea that this guy was coming after him onto the track, he probably doesn't have a spotter telling him "Hey, that guys gone nuts and is walking down the track, be careful" as he would in a Cup or Nationwide race.

I also think it's extremely unlikely almost to the point of absurdity that Stewart might have hit him on purpose, he's been around these races, and there's not really any reason for him to suddenly see red and snap and hit a 20 year old kid he probably barely knew or heard of at best, especially in a situation that apparently didn't affect his car or chances of winning at all that we know of. Usually the driver that's wrecked is the one who is pissed, and Stewart's car seemed fine, I don't see any reason for him to care about this kid at all. Maybe, MAYBE, I could see him showing up the kid or intimidating him, but I dunno how likely that is, you almost never see a reaction like that from a competitor who is still in the race and who's car is fine.

I think the best witness they have is probably the driver in front of Stewart. He looks like he has to swerve a bit too, and almost hits him as well. If the other driver with a clearer view says he didn't see the guy or know he was there until the last second, then there will be no reason for authorities to think Stewart would know he was there, since it would be harder for Stewart as he is probably mostly paying attention to the car in front of him and that car would have also blocked his view of any extracurriculars on the outside of the track for a period before they got to that spot on the track.

[10ac]

Who won?

[aTm]

The media

[Jungle Rat]

Dude was stupid. Much like IB.

[eCat]

apparently Stewart has a rep for being a bit of an ass, but its not hard to argue he is the victim here. He has to live knowing he killed a kid who was getting his shot at stardom - to say he beat Tony Stewart in a race.

[Owlman]

hard to see the living Stewart as a victim. He's an ass, that's known to wreck people who himself has gotten out of his car to confront people

[eCat]

hard to see the living Stewart as a victim. He's an ass, that's known to wreck people who himself has gotten out of his car to confront people

I'm not into Nascar so I know very little about him

but when you have a hot headed driver running around on a track and you're going at breakneck speed and you hit him - if you walk away from that unscathed your a psychopath.

I guess it hits a little close to home. My uncle was a stock car driver back in the day. He lost control of his car, went up and over the rail and killed a cameraman. He quit racing after that.

[Owlman]

hard to see the living Stewart as a victim. He's an ass, that's known to wreck people who himself has gotten out of his car to confront people

I'm not into Nascar so I know very little about him

but when you have a hot headed driver running around on a track and you're going at breakneck speed and you hit him - if you walk away from that unscathed your a psychopath.

I guess it hits a little close to home. My uncle was a stock car driver back in the day. He lost control of his car, went up and over the rail and killed a cameraman. He quit racing after that.

They were under a caution flag because of the accident. You are not supposed to be at breakneck speed but slower to prevent additional accidents.

[10ac]

It wasn't NASCAR.

[eCat]

I have to say, hearing it was a yellow flag does change my opinion on it quite a bit.

[Jungle Rat]

Naw. I doubt yellow even mattered at that point.

[T Dot O Dot]

He quit racing after that.

stewart wanted to race the next day