Tony Stewart and the Bravado of NASCAR

http://motorsportstalk.nbcsports.com/2014/08/13/driver-who-witnessed-tragedy-tony-stewart-did-everything-in-his-power-to-avoid-kevin-ward-jr/

The link I found above tells dirt track racer Cory Sparks perspective.  His perspective is important to the story because he narrowly avoided hitting Kevin Ward Jr. just before Tony Stewart did.  In his words "Tony did everything he could to turn down away from Kevin."  While this article is a defense of Tony Stewart, most anything else I have read or heard has casted Stewart as a murderer, and attacked the sport of NASCAR.

I have been a fan of NASCAR since I was a little kid.  My dad used to take me to short track NASCAR races such as Dover, Martinsville, and Charlotte motorspeedway to name a few.  Though I haven't been to a Sprint series (highest level of racing) race in over 10 years I still go out to Late Model (think of it as D-league) racing with my dad at least once a year down in the south where racing is very popular.  Unlike what most of the public perceives a NASCAR fan to be, I am not a confederate flag waving, buck tooth, southerner that lives in a camper that travels race track to race track.  Contrary to popular belief, you can like NASCAR, and still be a tennis coach, graduate college, embrace diversity, and have a full set of teeth.

All that being said I have seen Tony Stewart race since he was a rookie with the two yellow stripes on the back of his car to differentiate him from the rest of the veterans.  Tony goes by "smoke" and he embodies the bravado that encapsulates NASCAR's stars.  The biggest star in the sport Dale Earnhardt, who died at Daytona during a race, went by the nickname "the intimidator."  "The King" Richard Petty wears a cowboy hat everyday of his life.  The nicknames speak to the machismo of auto racing.  Imagine James Harrison, Hines Ward, Bruce Bowen, Patrick Beverly, Yasiel Puig, or Brandon Merriweather being the most popular guys in their sport.  There is a large grey area in the sport of NASCAR where payback and bad blood dictate whether or not you put a guy driving 200 MPH into a retaining wall.  The crashes are spectacular and it is part of what draws an audience to the track.

When I was really young one of the first memories I had of racing was when a driver at Martinsville was turned into the wall.  He got out of his car and met the guy who crashed him out in the middle of the track.  He proceeded to reach into the guys car and try to throw some punches at the man behind the wheel.  It was in broad daylight, and no one questioned what was going on.  There was no suspension based on the driver's actions although he put himself and the other driver in harms way.  It was all just part of the sport.  If you cannot leave the bench in a NBA game during a fight without being suspended it would make sense for a driver to at the very least be subject to a penalty for vacating his race car to punch another driver in the face.

What happened with Kevin Ward Jr. on the dirt track was tragic.  The video of Ward dying before our very eyes is disturbing.  There have been deaths, and serious injuries to NASCAR drivers in the past and they all know it's part of the risk when they choose to hop in a race car, but nothing this damming has ever happened to the sport in all its history.  No one knows what was in Tony Stewart's heart before he killed Kevin Ward Jr.  There are no criminal charges, and the video is inconclusive as to whether he was trying to avoid Ward or trying to run over him.  Tony Stewart has a history of having a tempor but that does not immediately classify him of being a murderer when Ward is the one who risked his life by getting out of his car to confront Tony Stewart in the middle of a bunch of speeding cars.  Other drivers stand behind Stewart saying they barely avoided Ward in his black driving suit at nighttime when the race was happening.  The death of Kevin Ward Jr. has put the spotlight on NASCAR, and the response has to be strong.   Rules should be implement to increase the safety of drivers.  Certainly no driver should ever step out of their car to confront another driver ever again.

As for me I stopped following the sport religiously years ago in elementary school when my mom sold my mini diecast NASCAR collection at our yard sale for 25 cents a car.  I still know the familiar drivers names, and when I go to the track with my dad I have a good time.  I will remember cheering for Bill Elliott "Awesome Bill from Dawsonville" in his sweet looking McDonalds #94 car, racing my mini cars down my driveway, and spending father son time at the race track.  Most who are unfamiliar with the sport see it as a bunch of rednecks full of bravado crashing each other out and taking left turns.  The Tony Ward Jr. incident is tragic, but for me it is not the lasting impression of what this sport is.  For those who have not followed anything NASCAR before this only have this horrible accident that they associate with the sport, and that saddens me.

--Eric Horowitz

Bill Elliott's "Mac Tonight" car. AKA coolest car ever!