First, as many other have said, my prayers go out to both Kevin's family, friends, and Tony.
I finally watch the video. I did not want to be that guy who rubber necks at an accident instead of watching for emergency workers and the road. But there is so much discussing going on, I felt like to be informed you have to see it. My first reaction is to feel bad for all who have been affected. I raced open wheel at the local dirt track in the late 80's. My class was called modifieds, we were a 100 inch, wingless, open wheel.
As far as the racing accident/spin, I don't see any way Tony can be blamed for that. Although he was drifting up (somewhat a side job), his rear wheel was past Kevin cockpit. Only those two men will ever know what they were thinking, I suspect Kevin was trying to save momentum and was sliding up also. I could not tell if Kevin hit some marbles or just over drove corner, either way when the rear wiggled just a bit, it did not have to move far to catch the fence. Again I don't know what Kevin was thinking, but I have been in exactly the same spot. I did not let off to keep the car in my current grove, which cause me to drift up. The track at OKC was 1/4 mile and 1/2 mile that shared the front straight. The corners and back stretch did not have any guard rails, but the back straight was elevated. So instead of hitting a guardrail, my rear wheel drop off the berm, spinning, then the belly pan dug in causing me to flip. I sensed the edge and if I knew what was going to happen I would have let up, but I thought I could squeeze through. What happen between Kevin and Tony up to this point is just racing. I always felt once you could no longer see the next guy's front tire, you have the right of way. As much as there is such a thing in racing.
The foxsports.com artical that metinon Kevin's girlfriend posts.
http://www.foxsports.com/nascar/story/dead-driver-kevin-ward-girlfriend-grieves-aunt-calls-out-tony-stewart-on-facebook-081314
Ignoring the junk, and paying attention to two witnesses who are also racers, and what they said. I think their analyses represent two to the more likely scenarios. The difference between them, one thinks Tony meant to "Buzz" Kevin, the other does not. IF one of these is true and that is IF, then either one Tony did not try to hit Kevin. There is no way I will ever buy that. I wonder if it was a bad game of chicken that went horrible wrong.
We come back to Kevin getting out of the car. Not only should a racer never get out of his car, he should not unhook any belts. I have seen many a time someone miss a yellow flag and slam into a wreck/stalled car.
The next week after flipping the car in OKC (from above), we raced in a special event in Amarillo Tx. Same thing happened only this time instead of flipping off the track, I was crosswise in the middle of turn 4 upside down. I was not about to release any belts, I could still hear cars buzzing by, and this was after a red flag. As I was sitting there, upside down, for some reason my check valves for the fuel tank vents did not catch and then I felt alcohol running down my back. At that point I felt safer to get out than to be in the car. That is why we need to be careful about any knee jerk rules about getting out of the car. The best suggestion I have seen so far is: If a driver gets out of the car before the safety crew arrives, the red is displayed immediately. The driver may then face suspension and/or fines.
Again, just bad deal and tragedy.
