I want to continue the topic I posted last night regarding Tony Stewart and Kevin Ward. I thought I'd move on to another blog topic today, but there is so much nonsense about this horrible accident being broadcast on radio and television, on twitter, posted on other blogs, and on the internet generally that I want to add a few photos to explain the point I made last night about Tony Stewart not being able to see Kevin Ward walking on the race track.
I took these photos last week.
This is Joey Saldana's car from the front. Look at the wing, especially the driver's right side (photo left side). The sideboard extends so low on the driver's right side that the driver can see little except the tires and wheels of a car on his right side. Stewart could not have seen Ward walking toward him. Remember that Ward was wearing a black driver's suit and walking on a track made of dark clay during a night race.
Here's a photo of one of Steve Kinser's cars. Note the limited vision on the right side. And remember that the drivers wear helmets with openings that restrict peripheral vision.
This is the car Steve Kinser ran at Knoxville Saturday. Look at the right side sideboard on the wing, and especially how far forward it extends. Stewart's view of Ward walking on the track would have been blocked by the wing on Stewart's car.
A view from the driver's seat.
We were walking around in the vendor area near the track on Thursday afternoon and Mrs. Haz says to me "I think I just saw Tony Stewart." We backtrack because I wanted to meet him. We had spent part of Wednesday in a group of racers that included Tony's father, Nelson Stewart, the bald guy in this photo, and I thought it'd be fun to meet his son. We didn't find him.
Nelson is a hoot. Funny, kind, gracious, and a great storyteller. He races a Legends Car (see photos below) which is the type of car our family driver was racing. Nelson is known for his generosity and his pizza dinners. Need a part? Take what you need out of his trailer. Dinner time? Nelson hosted a free get together for all the Legends drivers, their crews and their families. He rented a banquet room and ordered 60 pizzas from the nearby Pizza Hut.
A small vendor was selling single-speed bicycles that had big, fat balloon tires. They are really cool, and the guy is trying to make a living selling them.
Tony Stewart walked by, stopped, turned around, and bought one.
I have wandered off the point I wanted to make this morning, haven't I? Sorry. I get wrapped up in this stuff.
And that point is that Tony Stewart couldn't have seen Kevin Ward walking toward him because the sideboard of the wing blocked his field of vision, it was night, Ward was wearing a black suit, and the track wasn't well-lit.
Here is a comment posted on Facebook from a crew member on the car that passed Ward just in front of Stewart, right before Stewart's car hit Ward:
41 comments:
You mean to tell us that our hack media are hacking the story up to hacktastic heights of distortion and bullshit like they do everything else?
KatieCouricMattLauer-ed.
April - I just watched some hack attorney on Fox News explaining how Stewart will probably be charged with manslaughter. The guy is utterly clueless about the circumstances, or racing, or the specific type of car in this event.
But he made sure viewers knew his name, in the event any aggrieved parties want to bring a lawsuit.
Disgusting.
I know nothing about NASCAR or race driving, but, thanks to Michael's posts, I know somewhat more than the commentators I've seen on the news.....This is a tragedy, but it's a comprehensible tragedy. The young driver acted stupidly but for motives that are understandable. All those deaths in the Middle East are incomprehensible. Some father posed his five year old son struggling to hold a decapitated head. The caption under the picture was "that's my boy". How can you make sense out of shit like that?.........This Watkins Glen death gives the media a chance to enunciate moral sentiments and do what they do best--criticize white people.
Your posts on this deserve a wider circulation in order to provide a balance to the hype in the clueless media.
Sad as the whole event is, it is even sadder that Tony Stewart seems to be targeted by the media as the scapegoat of the week. The unthinking slavering mob pointed towards a new object to hate for a while and whose life will be further ruined, just like Richard Jewell.
That's the guy I mentioned in the previous post - works on the 45 car.
Yep, I think he actually knows more than some talking head - what are the odds?
Hype sells.
Again, thanks Haz. One of the best explanations I've seen.
Slightly off topic, but a friend once helped Steve Kinser with a flat tire on his motor home while they were both returning from Knoxville. He said Kinser was one of the nicest, most down to earth guys he's met, especially in light of his considerable fame.
My first wife was killed 25 years ago in a car/pedestrian accident on a dark night on a road in Woodstock where the speed limit is 45 mph. The driver wasn't speeding.
I never blamed the driver. My wife was wearing dark clothing. She never saw the car and the driver of the car never saw her as she crossed the street.
Shit happens. The job of lawyers is to blame somebody, but there is not always somebody to blame.
Not that I have any experience at this, but Michael, I think you are concentrating on a sight line too far back. By the time a driver sees someone to the right or forward right, he has already hit him. I think the key sight line would be more forward. More like over the right headlight (if there is one). That being said, I've posted elsewhere that I think it is likely Stewart did not see Ward until just before impact (from what I saw - in particular -- going around a curve with a car in front of him and Ward dressed in black at night).
There was an interesting scene in the movie Grand Prix.
One of the very experienced drivers, soon to retire, is giving an interview and he says, "If any of us could see ourselves smashing into a brick wall at 120 miles per hour we'd never get behind the wheel. So, that we do what we do is attributable to a certain . . . lack of imagination."
That's from memory. Close enough.
@Tank - I think you're right about the sight line. The sight line between the right front wheel and the A pillar (where the side of windshield would be) is pretty compromised. Add to it that the track is banked, so Ward is actually a bit uphill of the car and sight line.
I'm not very informed about current motor racing. My serious fan years were 1954-1980 or so. The cars all seem to have become bizarre, mutants of sorts, in almost all categories. NASCAR is a joke (IMO...others may love it), albeit profitable and popular, compared to how it began....no real "stock" car races anywhere today...just oval track versions of NHRA Funny Cars....a nifty shell that looks like what ever logo it carries...nothing inside resembles anything in any showroom anywhere. A far cry from NASCAR classes for real "stock" cars that my college friends raced for fun in Kentucky in the mid 60's. Formula 1 and Indy Cars are hardly much different with all their exotic contrivances to improve speed and down force a smidgen. Now I see that "sprint cars" have also "evolved" in to mutant winged machines. I am an old dude, but I find the machines I see in the video rather sad, pathetic really, compared to simpler days when this was Sprint Car....and it looked like This in the dirt (same car).
I will grant that the modern cars are safer by far. And that is a very good thing. However, I think that the same safety could have been achieved without the contrivances unrelated to safety. A bit less speed, and a lot more skill required to stay in the race. YMMV. I'll credit NASCAR with exercising some control over contrivances, but less every year. To me, in my naive youth, "racing" meant a contest between men or women without contrivances making a significant difference. Dirt track races here from Waterford out to Clare....local bubbas having fun. "Racing" in the ultimate was a Mille Miglia and a Mercedes Benz 300SLR driven by Juan Fangio & his mechanic or the epic 1963 Indianpolis 500 and Jimmy Clark driving a rear engined Lotus against the Offenhouser front engined stardards of the day...and Clark coming in 2nd place with a Ford small block push rod V8. Amazing driving skill on display that year by all [I was there...an annual thing] and some where I have photos of all of them on the home straight in to turn one...I don't remember who won, only that little green Lotus sausage with a mostly standard Ford engine placing 2nd. I was in awe of what a little 242 cubic inch blueprinted V8 from the racing shop at Ford Rouge in my home town could do. [That's was the same engine, made less, as the small block 289 ci used in the hot Mustangs.]
Finally, being from where I am...aka "Detroit" I take note of the macho let's fight attitude Haz refers to and is exemplified by Ward as he strides away from his wreck on to the track pointing at other cars...Stewart I presume...and walking in front of several as if they can't hurt him, even at yellow flag speeds. "I be bad, you dare defy me?!" Whop! [now i just be dead] Sadly that behavior is as common as dirt here where I live...I experience it in front of whatever I am driving almost daily...but weekly at the least. Juvenile ignorant stupid bravado ... it is a custom here among certain minorities (not just one, but several) who will "slow walk" in front of your vehicle, even if it is going 60 mph and they know it. Even funnier is if you skid to a stop close to them they go all macho man and walk right up to you and yell and talk tough....in their own "hood" they'd just get gut shot, and around here, where we're more Mexican, Arab and Gringo, they get to jump quickly aside as you say out the window, "dance bitch," and hit the f'ing gas.
What makes a grown man, even a dim witted grown man, walk in front of a 4000 lb 300 hp machine on wheels and think he's going to win?
Great post Haz.
Thanks for all of the info. It makes what happened much more understandable to those of us that do not drive.
I know nothing about car racing. The Stewart not at fault story sounds right to me. I've yet to hear anything that would contradict these facts. I only hear "he ran over a kid" screeching from the opposing viewpoint. I don't trust any prosecutor anymore. Most of them operate without any serious limitation and you just have to pray that your particular prosecutor isn't an asshole.
What really interests me about this story is the explosion of blame and hatred that erupted against Stewart on social media. There's a lot of free-floating rage out there these days, people who ordinarily wouldn't have an opinion about this particular incident in this particular obscure sport, suddenly have an opinion, a vehement and resentful and vengeful opinion. It's only ostensibly to do with the death of Kevin Ward. Someone who actually cared about the death of Kevin Ward would be more careful with the facts, more circumspect, less quick to jump immediately to emotional conclusions. There are probably people in the racing industry who don't like Tony Stewart because he's successful or some other personal reason, who will jump on this opportunity to ride him down. But there can't be that many such people.
Haz's post further illustrates the dismal state of media news today. With a few well chosen photos and knowledgeable text, even people that know nothing about racing can understand how such an accident could occur.
I listened to several Nascar pundits talking about the incident yesterday, and even they never came close to explaining things the way Haz has done.
Aridog, USAC sprint cars do not use the winged configuration that the "outlaw" sprints do. I'll be watching unwinged USAC midgets at a local track in a couple of weeks.
My dad took me to local races starting in the early 50's (Gordon Johncock was just starting out then), but my first exposure to big time racing was around 1970 at Elkhart Lake, WI. to watch a CanAm race that featured Hulme, McClaren, Andretti, etc. I got so hooked. Went on to watch lots of TransAm when Mark Donohue and Parnelli Jones were a couple of the top drivers.
Getting back to you, Haz. My fellow worker and weekend race director holds, as I expected, the same views as you do. He added that even with sanctions drivers depart their cars all the time... and that that is the real issue. He too is sadened by the young man's death but agrees that Stewart is blameless in this incident, including the 'tag' (which he puts down to inexperience on Ward's part) that got Ward so upset in the first place. Just racing...
My co-worker handles a track that puts 3-4 thousand in the stands every two weeks, raced when he was young and runs a tight track.
Just heard Jim Grey, sports reporter extraordinaire, say that Stewart probably isn't guilty of anything, but he has a real bad temper.
Whatta punk (Grey that is).
It is remarkable, like rh does, how shitty our media is. Hanks for the reminder with this post.
The thing is that as bad as the main stream media is it is astounding that the sports media is even worse.
They spout off nonsense all the time. If you are a knowledgeable fan you want to throw your shoe though the screen half the time.
It is simply amazing how horrible they really are. Jeez.
Thanks for the photo Aris, showing what the same class of race cars used to look like. What they gained in aerodynamics and "safety" they more than lost in aesthetics. Kind of like cars in general.
ESPN had the wisdom to bring former NASCAR driver Ricky Craven on set to comment and discuss Kevin Ward's death. Craven's analysis was careful, thorough, honest and articulate. The rest of the ESPN talking heads were out of their league, with the exception of Mike Golic this morning.
When you see a picture of Tony Stewart what do you see? Ads, lots and lots of ads.
The most telling part of this incident will be to watch how sponsors respond to having their corporate logo associated with anything Stewart related.
If he tones down his act one might be wise to, as they say, follow the money.
"The rest of the ESPN talking heads were out of their league"
That's par for the course. For the sports I follow, like Golf, they spout gibberish and always try to shoehorn racism/sexism/homophobia into the conversation. They also seem obsessed with TV ratings and how much $$ everyone is making. Two subjects I have little interest in.
A great analysis though MH.
did Robin Williams die?
Self murder, apparently.
shocking. sad.
April, yes, sadly.
That's a shame.
He was at times a genius, at times a leftist hack, but damn, dude, 63 is too damned young!
What remarkable energy he brought to comedy. Clearly, comedy is serious business.
I guess we will learn more as time passes, but for now, RIP, Robin, you made me laugh.
Michael,
As Trooper noted, post like yours, and one last week by Chip is what makes this place a good read. Of course great commenters as well.
In response to your response, I agree that many confrontations in NASCAR occur in the pits. I can't think of any where the emergency crews weren't there (but of course NASCAR races have more crews). The real key is the drivers may get out of their cars and vent, but they do so 10 feet away from the driving line. If Ward did that, then nobody outside of racing would know of this event.
I disagree that its always in the pits. I think I recall someone on the track at Bristol. I make that point for this reason, Bristol is coming up, and it is usually where NASCAR tempers flare. I'm curious to see what happens.
As for a manslaughter trial, I noted such at Evi's. With today's world, I think some prosecutor would take it to a Grand Jury just for the politics. But the politics work both ways. This track is probably a money maker for this area, and as such, the politician and police have a greater appreciation of the risks involved. Their not corrupt. They just know that racing is inherently dangerous. It seems like that is the kind of people investigating the incident, so I think this will stay out of the criminal courts. I'm happy about it.
Honestly, I'm a Tony Stewart fan. He turned me into a regular NASCAR watcher. I always watch the Indy 500, and when he did the double, I watched him do both, just like Kurt did this year. But when Tony did it, I kept watching the next race and following his career. I think it was the next year he won his first Championship. Since, I've met friends of his family, and through them, learned just how charitable the guy really is. He's a gritty racer, and he gets emotional. However, I get the impression he leaves it on the track (or at least the grounds of the track).
Finally, for the others commenting about the media; that's why I given up getting my news from "news sources". I can't even stand Drudge, whose related headlines are inflammatory. I understand, they do what they do to hit at raw emotions that will cause people to "tune in". But I think overall, it causes people to be more reactionary. So I scoff at the news and seek out more reasonable people, as I find here.
The cars look like box kites on wheels. Tilted box kites. Is the point to cut wind resistance?
Terrible melancholia. Ridiculous in an old fart. I'd see a psychiatrist but they charge big-time. :^0
Damn, missed the thread jump to Robin Williams. Sad to hear. I quit being a fan of his, but I have fond memories of his performances when I was a fan.
Ricpic - the wings on race cars are designed to increase downforce - make the cars stick to the ground and not take off. Texan Jim Hall put a moveable wing on his Chaparral cars back, well, a long time ago, and the cars could go fast on the straight, the driver would tip the wing to force the rear tires down, and then the car could take the turn faster.
Since then - well, your eyes tell the story. Wings everywhere, even on Honda Civics. When combined with nonsensical decals those cars gain thousands of horsepower and hundreds of mph on the top end. It's science.
That's a shame about Robin Williams.
Paul Kinney, the driver in the car in front of Stewart, had a somewhat different take on this - "Only Tony knows exactly what happened. I saw him clear as day. Nobody else ran into him"
The article linked by ARM above causes my baloney detector to ping.
Tow of the photos have nothing to do with the race. They are the photos of a tire in the wall. The track where the accident happened has concrete walls, no the steel Armco barriers shown in the photo. And the tires shown are Goodyear with slick treads. Sprint cars run Hoosier tires with grooved treads.
The quote from the driver who passed Kevin Ward just before Ward was struck by Tony Stewart's car directly contradicts the driver's statement as given by one of his crew on Facebook, and copied in my post above.
This story is at the point where people are trying to frame Stewart for Ward's death, despite the facts.
That's what commies do.
Other links to Paul Kinney's statements here and here. Kinney is the closest eye witness to speak so far. There isn't much doubt that the quotes are accurate and at least one factual point is correct, no one else ran into Ward.
It is all irrelevant.
No one in his right mind goes walking around on any racetrack during a race; never mind a 1/4 mile dirt track at night.
Even if Tony Stewart's eyes saw Ward, his brain would have refused to accept it.
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