Let me start of by saying that I am a long-time fan of Tony Stewart - he is my racing hero of more than 10 years. Of course I've always been partial to the Elliott's, but at the time when I really started watching races, Bill Elliott was already stepping down, so came Tony Stewart. Sure, at times he could get a little heated - both on and off track; he always would say what was on his mind, but more importantly, he was one heck of a wheelman! Throughout Tony Stewart's 36+ year racing career (And keep in mind he's just 43), he has driven and WON in basically every type of car that he has tried driving. This includes but not limited to - Go Karts, Midgets, Sprints, IRL, Late Models (both dirt & asphalt) 24 HR of Daytona Sports Cars, IROC, All three top levels of NASCAR, and more. He has over 10 national championships in several of the divisions I just listed. He is also the highest finisher of and 1 of only 4 drivers to compete in the Indy 500 and the Coca-Cola 600 in the same day (2001). Along with his NASCAR Sprint Cup teams, he is the owner of one of the best Sprint Car team in the country, including multi-time world champion, Steve Kinser, some say the King of Modifieds. I'm a firm believer that if NASCAR ever decided to host a school bus race on dirt, Tony Stewart would be one of the first to register.

Let's move to what everyone is talking about - the fatal incident at the Canandaigua Motorsports Park in upstate New York. So from what I've been reading from national news outlets and so-called "Racing Experts" is that it seems that Tony Stewart is a blood-thirsty murderer that purposely wrecked his competitor then ran him over when trying to confront him and should be banned from racing, and jailed for manslaughter and vehicular homicide (No, I'm not making this up!) What I got out of the video posted online from a fan in the stands was 1. I saw two drivers doing what they loved and going hard at it. 2. Stewart (#14) and Kevin Ward Jr (#13) were side by side going into turn one when #14 went low to perform a slide job on the other. Some reports (or other fans) say that Stewart drove high and pushed the #13 into the wall. Now I could be wrong, but what I saw was Stewart next to the other car, but contact doesn't appear to have been made to make Ward brush the wall. Like I said, what I got out of it, and this from viewing the accident on a computer screen, was the two drivers were going at it, Stewart's right rear tire about even with Ward's driver side area, and Ward just didn't have enough clearance and his RR tire made contact with the turn two wall. One could possibly think that Stewart did dive it deep hoping to use the #13 as a brake of sorts. In Ward's defense, I can imagine on the bumpy dirt track driving an 700+ hp car, it might have felt like Stewart drove him in the wall. Think back to all the different big wrecks in NASCAR - we as spectators know what happened due to instant replays. However, when the involved drivers are interviewed, their versions of what happened sometimes contradict what the replay shows. In some cases, the drivers will say to the TV crew something like "Now that I can see the replay, I know it was my fault, or the guy in front of me turned into someone else, etc.

Now, let's move ahead. Notice that immediately after Ward's #13 stops from spinning you can see in the video, he is moving around in the car unbuckling and such. Within seconds of getting out of his car, he starts sprinting down the track towards oncoming cars. I've noticed alot of comments saying that 5 or 6 cars were able to get past him, why couldn't Tony? While that is true, I did notice the first or second car to pass, while Ward himself was on track were running in the middle lane of the track and looked as if they were literally maybe three feet from him. While this car passed by in the center lane, I imagine that Stewart was probably getting the yellow flag from the front stretch flag stand. I understand that you cannot slow these cars down like you can a street car or a NASCAR. A Sprint car is like a go-kart on steroids. Sprint Cars have 700+ HP with only rear brakes. That's all you really need to help the car pitch itself in the turns. Since it was a dirt track, when going into the turns you must slide the car, like drifting, or driving on black ice. Rear brakes are only needed to get the rear of the car to lock, then immediately get on the gas and your 700+ HP engine will keep it smooth in the turns. Back to the caution lap, it does take a bit to slow the car down. I'm sure that Stewart saw the disabled car in the middle of turn 1, but in my opinion, he might not have know that it was Ward. Remember what I said about #14 possibly might not have made contact with #13 to start the initial incident? Know that in this type of racing, one doesn't have a spotter that sits on top of the tower (like in NASCAR) and he doesn't have a mirror (to my understanding). If no contact was actually made a lap before, it's possible that Stewart did not know that it was the driver he was battling against just a lap before.

Now to what everyone is saying - Kevin Ward jumped out of his car in all black in night race on a dirt track. This is very true. From my experience with local dirt tracks, the lighting is not the best, and the same goes for this track. I would say close to 90% of all dirt tracks in America do not have the funding, nor the draw that tracks like Charlotte Motor Speedway do. Plain and simple is that this track was not lit up like the streets of Las Vegas. Secondly, you can tell from the first lap of the video that it is a semi-dusty track. Now given that a lap later some of the dust may have settled down, it still may have been challenging to see the driver. I can say that I've never sat in a Sprint Car for first hand experience but I do know that you have limited vision while inside the cockpit, especially a winged car, such as what was being raced. the wing on top of the car provides downforce, which makes for a faster lap time. It also gives some protection if the car is rolled or flipped. On the driver side of the car, the wing has a lip that goes up. On the right side of the car, the lip hangs lower than the wing itself. Second, just based off of pictures of winged cars, it appears that the drivers vision is about inline with the hood of the car. So, could Tony Stewart even see Kevin Ward Jr before it was too late? Chances are that the answer is no, but only Stewart himself knows the answer to that.

Another fact that many are talking/posting about is the fact that you can hear an engine being 'revved' or gunned'. The fact is the camera turns to the #45 car (just in front of Stewart) and you hear the engine. When the camera turns back, it pans to the right to look for Stewart's car, then quickly moves back to follow Stewart's car on track. I do know that a Sprint car, much like a go-kart does not have a traditional transmission where one has a clutch pedal and selects the gears. It has a direct drive (meaning it has one gear). That why to start a Sprint Car, many have a 'push truck' that comes behind them to push to start. Many have stated that Tony probably wanted to spray dirt, or taunt the driver. As I stated before, I have a feeling that because of the way the initial spin happened, I do not think that Tony knew that Kevin Ward hit the wall....so why would he want to taunt him if he probably didn't know that he even spun out. Some have stated that Stewart probably stepped on the gas at the last minute in an effort to get the car to turn to avoid Ward.

Most have said that it was wrong for Ward to step out of his car onto a busy track and should have stayed in his car. While that would've been the thing to do, I must bring up that (even as a diehard #14 fan) Stewart has done the same in numerous NASCAR races. One of the more recent times was the Summer night race at Bristol in 2012. Stewart and fellow driver Matt Kenseth spun while battling for the lead. Stewart showed displeasure by throwing his helmet in a two-handed throw at the windshield of Kenseth's car (then driving for Roush-Fenway Racing). That is true, no one can take that away from Stewart. However,it was after safety crews arrived on scene. Most of the time when someone is showing their displeasure (ex- Kurt Busch & Jimmy Spencer - Indy 2003) a track worker was standing right next to Busch when he was offering hand signals to Spencer. Most of the time, a track official is present attempting to persuade the driver to get in the ambulance. One thing Kevin Ward did not do on Saturday night was to wait for the track's safety crew. In fact, the first safety truck did not arrive until after Ward had already been hit.

Lastly, should Stewart deserve to get charged with manslaughter or vehicular homicide? NO, plain and simple. Let's remember those wrecks where something similar happened. While this is a very rare thing to a National level, one that sticks out in my mind was an ARCA race in Charlotte years ago in 2002. During practice (At the time spotters were not present during practice) Eric Martin hit the wall exiting turn 4 and was sliding down into the infield grass. Three cars came up on him at a high rate of speed, but avoided Martin. During this, Eric Martin was starting to unbuckle his belts and was talking to his crew on the radio when almost 20 seconds after his car same to a stop, Deborah Renshaw struck the driver side door of Martin's car, which led to Martin being killed on impact. Renshaw said she never saw him. It did end her career, but she was never charged. The same goes for drag racers Richard Petty (yes, that Richard Petty) and Huston Platt who had tragic accidents at two different drag strips in Georgia (one in 1965, one in 69'), both killing spectators, but both carried on with their careers.

The point of this is that I DO NOT believe that Stewart did this intentionally, but merely a tragic accident. It is sad, but one major part of racing is the danger of death, and death is a part of life. As a fan, I hope that Tony Stewart, along with the Ward family, finds peace and maybe one day Stewart will compete again.