It's just that you can still see Ward upright at roughly 1.09, with three quarters of Stewarts car already past him. If he was hit by the front of the car, still being upright seconds later would seem difficult at best. You can also see him drop to the track, but everyone keeps going on about him being thrown...

MV

It's a very tough one to call. You can see the ass end of Stewart's car moving about. You can also see Ward backpedaling just before he disappears from view. Grabbing the wing might have looked like the easiest way to avoid the rear tire. But it was the momentum of Stewart's car that threw him into the ground, into a cartwheel, not his dropping away.

At any rate, I suspect Stewart's dirt track career is over. I'll bet those small town fans will boo him mercilessly. That's not what sponsors pony up large funds for.

I just see Ward falling to the ground and sliding across the track, no "flying", no "cartwheels", no "thrown", all of which I keep hearing used to described what the video shows.

I have no love for Stewart, nor have I any hate for him. Prior to this event and the subsequent media coverage, he was an unknown to me. I don't watch Nascar. I don't watch sprint cars. I do watch people. I do watch society. What I'm seeing now is a whole lot of people going on and on about an event, many claiming with absolute certainty what happened, often times in contrast with what the video shows. I find it fascinating. I'm not sure if we'll ever know everything about it. Stewart would be best to not talk too much about it, and Ward cannot. It is interesting to say the least.

MV

One comment: In the original contact between Stewart's car and Ward's car...I believe that STewarts car was ahead of Ward's car. In that case it is the responsibility of the car which is behind to avoid the colision....namely Ward. Stewart was sliding up the track in the turn and it was Ward's duty to back off a tick to avoid contact.

That was a racing accident and similar moves probably happened 20 other times in that race without contact.

As for STewart's career being over? I doubt that. And as for the fans booing him?

Maybe the Ward fans will, but unless there is more clear evidence than I have seen so far his responsibility in this matter appears to be less than Ward's simply because Stewart was where he was supposed to be, in his car, and Ward was not.

As a racer I can tell you that if it were me in that car I would have been looking ahead where I was headed, toward the inside of the turn. Looking to the right on a winged sprint car will not give you much of a view at all.

I get it. You root for the little guy till he grows up and becomes the jerk. Fine. Jerk or not, there is a difference between being a jerk and killing a guy intentionally.

You may accuse him of being too aggressive and not taking the long road in trying to avoid Ward however, that is different than you saying he intentionally ran the guy down. Apparently, your wanting to hang the jerk makes it difficult for you to see that since you keep bringing up his jerkiness.

Tom, Tom, Tom. I keep hearing this 'look to the right' stuff. Ward was to the left of cars when they entered the turn, in terms of line of sight. No question about it. And until they went past him he would be primarily in front of the car in terms of line of sight.

Look at the slow-motion video. Stewart's rear end is fishtailing right, left then right. This was not the result of Ward's body doing anything to the car. Those cars have what, seven, 800 hp? Add to that the movement of the steering, front wheel that you can see which matches the fishtailing, Stewart threw some aggression into the mix.

We'll never know what Ward did as far as grabbing the car, or why, with any certainty. But looking at the first go-round, I see Stewart's front wheel clearly go in and go out, and the bulk of his car go hard to the right just before hitting the wheel. The guy has been around those cars for a long time. And he boasts about taking people out.

I don't think small-town fans are going to forget this.

Funny, you don't give that impression.

Which is it? Was he being aggressive or deliberately aiming for him? I don't think it is fair to say that the competitors are Laissez Faire about winning. I expect that they are all competitive just like Ward is which explains why he was so pissed when he was out of the race. In fact, so competitive that it made him do stupid things. However, gross stupidity has nothing to do with trying to kill someone.

Maybe, maybe not. I suppose a large part will depend on whether he gets cleared of charges or not. I remind you that in spite of being a jerk, he did get a lot of sponsor ship.

It is not at all hard for me to conclude that Stewart did something aggressive with his car just before he hit Ward. The evidence is overwhelming.

The hard part is did Ward grab the wing intentionally? Was he that big of an idiot? Or was he doing it as a defensive move?

I'm not a racer by any means but isn't it an expectation that the track be cleared when you are racing? I know that when autocrossing, if you are disabled, you get off the track yesterday.

Yes, he wouldn't be where he is if he wasn't aggressive. You don't get to be anywhere near the top if you aren't competitive. However, there is a difference between me trying to not get a worse time via taking the long route around you vs aiming for you.

Well, considering that he DID run out on the track and deliberately targeted Stewart's car, I'd have to say he was a big enough of an idiot to try to grab the wing.

Good Lord, this is denial on a staggering a scale. Yes of course, by all means, be aggressive during the race within limits of sanity perhaps. But I'm talking about doing a lap with the yellow flag out where everybody has reduced speed significantly and there's a guy on the track that you're approaching.

My missing link buddy apparently thinks I'm some kind of fool for talking with my racing fan neighbor on this topic. I just spoke to him about the visibility issue and he pointed out that we have this technology now where you can type in "sprint car helmet cam" in the search box and get an idea of just what they can see when they're in the car. I done it:

81 speedway sprint cars- Jeff Radcliffe in car cam - YouTube

Dude. I've said numerous times no way was he trying to kill him. My best guess is he was trying to spray some dirt on him or scare him. Could be he's enough of a hothead himself that he confused his car with his fists and wanted to hit the guy, but hit him a little too hard.

But none of that really matters. What matters is: did he engage in reckless conduct that brought about someone's untimely death. But for me, I'm really not that concerned whether he does time for this or not. What animates me is the sight of a guy who is as successful as he is in the sport being that chicken**** over such a trivial matter.

It's very likely that he did put Ward out of the race intentionally. Just before he hit Ward's front tire you can see a jerk hard to the right and back again of his front wheel. Oh well, it's known that many of the top NASCAR drivers are, in fact, dirty drivers.

One can live with that. The hard part is seeing him then go all petulant at the sight of the kid complaining about what he had done.

If there was any sanity involved, they wouldn't be in cars going at that speed around a dirt track. NFW that I would do it myself. How much faster was he going than everyone else? IDK. And it isn't just a guy that you're approaching. It is a guy that is also approaching you in an erratic pattern while you are approaching him.

What you can see and what you focus on are different things. I can see a lot in my car but whether I am paying attention to it is a different story.

More of the standard denial. Missing link mocked me for mentioning my neighbor's opinion. My man said that he's seen sprint races in he can't remember how many states and he sees that happen, someone getting out of the car to complain after a wreck, in practically every race. Then I read about the other driver, Kinney, saying pretty much the same thing.

Point is it's become a de facto part of the sport. I'm sorry, Stewart knew that he took out the kid's car in that first go-round, and the kid knew it. Stewart knew there was a yellow flag out, otherwise he wouldn't have been doing 35-40 miles an hour. He saw the kid well enough to aim his car such that he would scare him and gunned the engine at the appropriate time and yet I still hear people talking about how he didn't see him.

I mean come on, this is embarrassing.