Tony Stewart Situation....

[bleacherbum]

Never understood why drivers exit their cars into a live track. You can't confront another driver while they are moving at 40 to 50 MPH, only thing this young man was confronting is a field cars. This was a terrible lose of life.
I have attended hundreds of sprint cars events over the last 40 years. These cars are rocket ships on a wet dirt track. So many factors to be taken into consideration before judgment should be passed. Dimly lit tracks, mud on rock screen and helmet further hampering vision just to name a few. Last thing I'm sure Tony expected to see coming out of a turn was a person walking in the middle of the track with a black helmet and driver suit.
Only Tony Stewart knows his true intentions that night. But I'm positive he never meant to hurt the kid.

[Crimson's Ghost]

If I'm Nascar, I don't think I would permit my drivers to participate in other events. If the Lakers can tell Kobe he can't play pickup basketball outside of team functions, I would think Nascar should have similar guidelines.

[abpk2903]

That would never, ever happen for about 30 different reasons but here are some of the biggest:

-These drivers are independent contractors. The only organization that can stop them from competing in other series are team owners. Some team owners do highly discourage this practice. Tony Stewart owns his own team.

-Fear of unions. NASCAR really does tread lightly with this. NASCAR is one of the few professional sports organizations that does not have a player's (or in this case driver's) association.

-NASCAR needs these small Friday night series to produce future talent. The majority of nascar drivers are discovered by a current driver while competing at these type of events. It is literally like the college football of the NFL.

-NASCAR has bigger issues (the new race team alliance, ailing attendance, ailing TV numbers, and lack of corporate sponsorships) to tackle than worrying about its drivers driving their own cars in other series.

[Manfred]

This was a tragic event. No dog in this hunt, as I'm not any kind of Nascar fan, but I do like the winged sprints. Uninformed folks need to know that the horsepower-to-weight ratio of a sprint car is the greatest of any unsupercharged or unturbocharged cars. While these cars do have brakes, the drivers grew up in them learning to steer them as much by a combination of the steering wheel, the downforce exerted by the wings, and predominant use of the throttle. These tracks are slippery clay, and the term powerslide means that's how they drive, basically skating around the track like an Olympic speed skater on an oval rink. They race "on the edge" of vehicle control every lap around the track. By a careless driver losing his cool and stepping onto the track, he becomes an obstacle much the same as a piece of equipment falling off another car and being run into. Condolences for the victim's family and friends, but I see no blame on Stewart's part. I've seen the replay of the accident. Every driver should be wearing fluorescent clothing, not a black fire suit and helmet.

[abpk2903]

This event reminds me of a race in New Hampshire for the NASCAR series about a decade ago.

Back then, if you were a lap down the only way to get your lap back was physically passing the leader and beating him back to the start/finish line. Well there was a reason why he is the leader and you are over a lap behind him. So what most drivers did to "earn" their lap back was try to stay on the same straightaway as the leader. If a caution came out, the leader had nothing to gain by continuing to race hard and the fear of driving over debris or even getting caught up in the wreck themselves. So they would roll out of the throttle and coast to the start/finish line to eventually file in behind the pace car. The lapped cars close behind him hammer down to try to take advantage of this and beat him back to the line thus getting their lap back.

Well one fall race at New Hampshire Dale Jarrett wrecked off of the final turn and was sitting broadside on the track about 200 yards from the start/finish line. As his car burst into flames, he jumps out about the same time 10-15 cars are racing to get back to the line. This is a very narrow track with a retaining wall on the inside of the track for pit road. I'll never forget the cars literally dodging him standing in the middle of the track.

NASCAR the following week put a rule in that all cars must slow immediately at the time of caution. The 1st car recorded a lap down at the time of caution will be rewarded their lap back. It was a great rule for safety and was fair to competitors.

Hopefully this tragedy makes all forms of racing adopt some rule changes to prevent this from happening in the future. Here is what I would suggest:

-Make all drivers where a brightly colored fire suit. Orange, yellow, white, or some florescent color.

-Make stiff suspensions to any driver that exits his/her car and does not immediately exit the racing surface. Make it a 10 race suspension and a $10,000 fine in order to continue competition.

-Better the lighting at these tracks. The problem is at dirt tracks is not only do they have poor lighting but the dust works almost as a heavy fog.

[Nets77]

I have been to countless dirt tracks for various kinds of racing over the years. Sprints, Late Models, Modifieds, etc. Every track I have ever been to has had a "Driver's Meeting" in the pits prior to racing. Every time I have ever been to those meetings, track staff has always told the drivers to remain in their car until track staff or emergency personel has arrived, unless your car is on fire.

[Tussey Mt. fan]

I have read numerous articles on the accident over the last several days. Some well written and many totally ignorant to sprint car racing. This article is the best one I've read. If you don't understand sprint car racing please take a minute to read it.

http://chippewa.com/dunnconnect/article ... a15d8.html

[Nets77]

Very good article Tussey. By far the best article that is out there. Too bad that the majority of people who don't understand sprint cars and racing will never read this.