In life there are crimes of hate, passion, instinct and accident. What happened on Saturday, August 8th in upstate New York, the death of 20-year old driver Kevin Ward Jr., is a tragedy that has sparked controversy from pundits to the non-racing fan. Whenever a life is taken there is always the instant reaction that goes over the top.
Monday, two days after the passing of Ward, the Sheriff announced that at the present time no charges will be filed against anyone involved in the situation. Tony Stewart has stayed away from press and in a statement Sunday expressed only remorse.
It is rightly so that the Sheriff's department is going against the growing common path in America and not rushing judgement or file charges against Stewart until the full facts of the case are examined. The court of public opinion, that's in large part to Twitter, will always be the official unofficial court of the people.
What remains incredible is the fact that people, like Tyler Graves, a sprint car drive who was in attendance when Stewart hit and fatally killed Ward, told Sporting News that Stewart could see Ward but that he didn't think it was intentional.
The quotes, told to racing reporter Bob Pockrass, seem to contradict each other.
"I know Tony could see him. I know how you can see out of these cars.
When Tony got close to him, he hit the throttle. When you hit a throttle
on a sprint car, the car sets sideways. It set sideways, the right rear
tire hit Kevin, Kevin was sucked underneath and was stuck under it for a
second or two and then it threw him about 50 yards."
Graves followed that up later in the interview by saying, "You never mean to do something like that. Kevin was pissed and he let Tony know. And Tony was trying to give the
message back that he wasn't happy either. He went over the line with
it."
The two things that stick out in his response are one, the fact that Graves is willing to put himself inside the car, inside Tony's head and then two follow it up by saying he didn't intentionally mean to do it but what he did do was over the line.
Full disclosure: Graves and Ward were very close friends and it was noted in the story by Pockrass that Graves got emotional talking about his friends death. Being emotional is understandable given the bond between the drivers but at that point you take the time to sit the interview out.
ESPN Nascar reporter Marty Smith said it best on Twitter and fellow ESPN college Colin Cowherd offered unbiased prospective on.
"He's not going out there to hurt anybody. I mean if there's any inclination that he's going out there to hurt somebody on purpose I would vehemently say no. Yeah the bad guy sells but because this has occurred we are discussing that side of Tony Stewart but you have to remember that somebody died and that's horrible," Smith told Colin Cowherd on TheThundering Herd podcast.
Cowherd asked Smith directly on the record about off the record talks he had with drivers who thought this is Stewart's fault that Ward is dead. Smith, is without question the best Nascar reporter and very connected within the sport so his answer is very telling.
"None that I've spoken to. I've spoken to several of them...I'm telling you man no B.S. the response from everyone is shock. Nobody is point fingers at anybody in terms of fault. Nobody is pointing at Ward and nobody is pointing at Stewart. Everybody is just really sad."
The last two sentences, no one is pointing fingers and everyone is sad is exactly the way it should be. A 20-year-old died defending, in the heat of the moment, what he loved doing and one of the sports best was behind the wheel. However, in that the only thing that matters in reality is a 20-year-old died.
We should be remorsing that fact that Ward is dead. Not rushing to say Stewart should be charged or saying it's Ward or Stewart's fault. For a sport that is built on machismo and being Billy Badass. We should let the Sherriff's office focus on the legal aspect of it and focus on remembering the life of Ward and see if there is anything that should be changed in the sport to prevent this from happening again.
As widely pointed out, this isn't the first time in racing. A driver getting out of his car and/or going after another driver in the pit or on the track, like Ward did, is something that has always been a part of the sport and nothing has been done to stop it.
Lets take the time to see if there is something that can be done to protect the life of present and future drivers instead of pointing fingers. Kevin Ward Jr. is dead and it's saddening. Rightly so no charges have been filed against Stewart, just two days after the death of Ward.
If, after all the evidence has been gather and the law enforcement believes that Stewart should be charged then that day will come when it does. If they feel there is not enough evidence and they don't charge him, that day will also come. But to force it or rush to that date is not the right thing to do now.
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