What Did Tony Stewart Do?

I woke up this morning to messages about Tony Stewart, and had to Google what he had done now. That meant I got to see the video and read about him running over another driver on a dirt track last night.

It’s disturbing in so many ways. I have no idea why Kevin Ward thought running in the direction of moving race cars was a good idea. He was obviously very angry a about being run into the wall by Stewart, and it looks like he had a right to be.

I also have no idea if Stewart hit him accidentally or not. I’ve never raced, never driven a sprint car on a dirt track and never been confronted with someone appearing suddenly in front of my car like that.

Clearly though, the in your face, confrontational attitude in race car driving has now claimed a life. On and off track incidents have always been part of racing, whether it was someone racing down pit row to throw a pinch or screaming at other drivers as they went by, etc., what Ward did isn’t that far out of the norm for what we see on Sportscenter many race weekends. It just cost him his life.

I hope we learn more about what happened and appropriate steps are taken, even if that means Stewart never races again, or drivers are expected to stay off the track even when they are angry. It might not be as entertaining, but it’s too dangerous a sport to continue letting it be more dangerous!