The nuances of these cars are difficult to understand by the layman. They react differently than one would think to different actions.
A little background. This particular car was what is known as a 360 winged sprint. It weighs around 1500# and has around 700 hp.
It has a wheel base of around 106-109 inches.
The drive-line is direct drive meaning there is no clutch or transmission. You are either in gear or you're out of gear.
The rear wheels turn in unison with each other.
The cars is set up to only turn left and it uses something called "Roll Out" to help it turn
Roll Out is the difference in the circumference between the right rear tire and the left rear tire.(this is an important factor in this deal) The amount of Roll Out is determined by the size of the track and the diameter of the turn.
Best way to describe this is to take a paper cup wide on one end and narrow on the other and roll it across the top of the table. You will notice the wide end travels a longer distance than the narrow end.
Here is why this is important. Some witnesses say they heard Tony gun the engine as he passed by Ward and saw the rear end kick out. This is the general reaction when you gun an engine with a live rear end which has Roll Out. the larger tire travels farther and kicks the rear end out. The general response is to turn the front wheel in the direct of the skid as you do on ice to keep the rear end from coming around.
I do not think Tony or any of today's drivers would intentionally try to hurt someone. Fifty years ago i doubt you could say the same thing. But as i said i doubt he would intentionally try to harm anyone.
What i do believe he was trying to intimidate or scare the kid and misjudged the distance. Tony has an attitude problem and has had one for decades.
It is my opinion he really doesn't have a lot of respect for local drivers. He caused an accident at this very same track a year ago sending another local driver to hospital with serious injuries.
It is my opinion after reading much of the witness testimony that Tony was going to teach this kid a lesson and put him in his place and things went terribly wrong.
Much has been said about the kids black uniform. I do not see it as an issue as it looks as if the track is very well lit and the color of the uniform should not have been an issue.
Based on comments from officials i have an uneasy feeling that this is not going to be a very thorough investigation. Since it happened on the track is is not going to be given a lot of scrutiny. I may be wrong but that is the feeling i get from things. Big name star athlete on a track with a no name local driver.
I do believe if it had happened on a street that it would be given much more intensive investigation. If you swerve in an attempt to scare someone and ends up accidentally hitting them you would certainly be facing criminal charges. But sheriff has state it is not currently a criminal investigation. So they are looking at it as just an accident.
thanks for the details on the car man, it's really tough for us non car guys to understand this one.
My brother worked on the Craftsman series as a shop mechanic (not a full time or even really solid part team team, but a team none the less) and he basically said those cars handle really oddly and it's possible the whole thing is just a really, really crappy accident.
Feel bad for all involved, what a horrible, horrible night.
1. Visibility from inside a sprint car is very poor. Especially to the right.
2. Most dirt tracks are not sufficiently lit.
3. In sprint car racing, the first thing they tell you is that it's an automatic disqualification if you get out of your car. Period. Even during a red flag. That's so no one gets hit, and because if you get back in your car you can't strap in as tightly as you need to be without assistance.
All points made by a national champ sprint car racer interviewed on the radio yesterday. He declined to make a judgment as to who was (more) to blame. He did say, however, that even at caution speed Tony would have HAD to have goosed the gas to drop down to miss the guy where he was standing.
Because it involved Tony Stewart, I predict sweeping changes for ALL these little dirt tracks.
(08-11-2014 03:52 PM)tigernole79 Wrote: I simply do NOT believe that running over another human was within his MO.
I don't think he TRIED to hit him!!!! I DO think he tried to put him into the wall, which was very much within his MO.
I didn't say it was. I said I didn't think he did it intentionally.
Gunning the engine to kick the back out to possibly try to scare the dude while possibly cussing and pointing his own self is completely within his MO.
I just don't give him benefit of the doubt that he was completely innocent in this accident.
(08-12-2014 06:52 AM)holyterror Wrote: 1. Visibility from inside a sprint car is very poor. Especially to the right.
2. Most dirt tracks are not sufficiently lit.
3. In sprint car racing, the first thing they tell you is that it's an automatic disqualification if you get out of your car. Period. Even during a red flag. That's so no one gets hit, and because if you get back in your car you can't strap in as tightly as you need to be without assistance.
All points made by a national champ sprint car racer interviewed on the radio yesterday. He declined to make a judgment as to who was (more) to blame. He did say, however, that even at caution speed Tony would have HAD to have goosed the gas to drop down to miss the guy where he was standing.
Because it involved Tony Stewart, I predict sweeping changes for ALL these little dirt tracks.
Here is a video if an incar camera on a sprint car. The camera in this car is mounted to the left of the driver on the roll bar so it does not have as good of view of anything on the right of the car as the driver does. HOWEVER if you look out front of the car going through the turns you can see the outside wall on the part of the track just ahead of you. What this means is you do not have to be able to see directly to the side of your car. Any objects that you would come up on that would end up beside you would already be seen by you as you go through the turn. The only thing that you would not be able to see if somethings that comes up from the rear and is next to you.
Also if you look to the right you can see where the wing ended and you can see space where you could see more to the right if you pivot your head, the camera is fixed and does not have the ability to pivot.
True many tracks are dimly lit, but this one seems to have sufficient light that the video is bright enough to read the lettering on the uniform.
another item is unless you are on the gas, if you are idling around the track hitting the brakes will be enough to kill the engine and stop the car quickly. The engines are loading up while idling around under caution speed and the drivers usually gas it on the straight a little to clear out the extra gas.
Thing is this could have happened right here. Tony was scheduled to be in town next Thursday to run, but cancelled all his dirt track events for the remainder of the year.
The NY Daily News reported on the “simmering rivalry between hot-headed NASCAR star Tony Stewart and upstate sprint car driver Kevin Ward,” calling it the “spark that led to Ward’s death on the track.”
Fellow sprint-car racer Tyler Graves said Ward and Stewart have had on and off track altercations in the past, and suggested that Stewart intentionally buzzed Ward to send him a message.
“I know Tony could see him,” Graves said. “I know how you can see out of these cars.”
Another driver, 21-year-old Charlie Dorn, said: “Tony Stewart and Kevin have raced against each other and they’ve always had a thing for each other. Kevin always beats him and Tony has crashed into him a few times and I think every time they race, Kevin saw it as an extra challenge.”
Some have speculated that Stewart, known to be an aggressive driver that has been involved in multiple dustups over his career, was trying to send Ward a message by blasting right by him.
The incident has touched off a rage of comments and controversy on social media and news outlet sites among the NASCAR community and others. Some say Stewart clearly was trying to buzz Ward in a warning gone terribly wrong. They say Stewart sped up deliberately after seeing Ward on the track. Others claim that Stewart likely never saw Ward, or if he did, he “throttled up” in order to help spin his vehicle, which has no clutch, out of Ward’s path.
Stewart, 43, whose brash driving style earned him the nickname Smoke, has a long history of burning up the asphalt with his temper.
Tony Stewart Web Graphic
And he has used tough talk to back up his driving tactics.
“If he ever turns down across in front of me again, I don’t care what lap it is, he won’t make it through the other end of it,” he said after a confrontation with driver Joey Logano in March 2013.
Stewart accused Logano of blocking in his car during a race in Fontana, Calif., and went after him, shoving him and threatening to run him over before their crews separated the two drivers.
In August 2012, a fuming Stewart flung his helmet at a car driven by Matt Kenseth during a race in Tennessee.
Why hasn't Stewart just come out and say, hey I gunned the engine to help move the car out of the path of Ward. Or at least give us his side of what happened.
The NY Daily News reported on the “simmering rivalry between hot-headed NASCAR star Tony Stewart and upstate sprint car driver Kevin Ward,” calling it the “spark that led to Ward’s death on the track.”
Fellow sprint-car racer Tyler Graves said Ward and Stewart have had on and off track altercations in the past, and suggested that Stewart intentionally buzzed Ward to send him a message.
“I know Tony could see him,” Graves said. “I know how you can see out of these cars.”
Another driver, 21-year-old Charlie Dorn, said: “Tony Stewart and Kevin have raced against each other and they’ve always had a thing for each other. Kevin always beats him and Tony has crashed into him a few times and I think every time they race, Kevin saw it as an extra challenge.”
Some have speculated that Stewart, known to be an aggressive driver that has been involved in multiple dustups over his career, was trying to send Ward a message by blasting right by him.
The incident has touched off a rage of comments and controversy on social media and news outlet sites among the NASCAR community and others. Some say Stewart clearly was trying to buzz Ward in a warning gone terribly wrong. They say Stewart sped up deliberately after seeing Ward on the track. Others claim that Stewart likely never saw Ward, or if he did, he “throttled up” in order to help spin his vehicle, which has no clutch, out of Ward’s path.
Stewart, 43, whose brash driving style earned him the nickname Smoke, has a long history of burning up the asphalt with his temper.
Tony Stewart Web Graphic
And he has used tough talk to back up his driving tactics.
“If he ever turns down across in front of me again, I don’t care what lap it is, he won’t make it through the other end of it,” he said after a confrontation with driver Joey Logano in March 2013.
Stewart accused Logano of blocking in his car during a race in Fontana, Calif., and went after him, shoving him and threatening to run him over before their crews separated the two drivers.
In August 2012, a fuming Stewart flung his helmet at a car driven by Matt Kenseth during a race in Tennessee.
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Biggest A hole in sports
