The Tony Stewart Racing Tragedy Never Should Have Happened

A very sad, tragic accident occurred over the weekend. Kevin Ward Jr. lost his life after being struck by the sprint car driven by Tony Stewart. Everyone has their own opinion on what they think happened. The video is on YouTube if you want to see it. It’s only 1 minute long and some people want to make a judgment without having all the facts. Tony Stewart passed Kevin Ward Jr. clean -- that kind of pass happens nightly at a race track. I'm not going to talk about the actual race though, but instead what it's like to be a driver inside the car.

I’ve raced for over 20 years now and if you have never put on a helmet and raced, here’s some information you should know. We have a drivers' meeting with the officials either nightly or at different times throughout the year and they tell you if you're involved in a wreck, stay in your race car until the emergency personnel are on the scene.

We don’t always have a clear view of the race track. From the video it appears the corner doesn't have the best lighting. Kevin Ward Jr. was wearing a black driver's uniform with a black helmet, which is very tough to see as it blends in with the track. Most emergency personnel have reflective stripes on their uniforms which helps us drivers see them.

When the caution flag comes out, drivers will start to weave their cars back and forth, and will rev up their motors. This is done to keep the tires warm and cleaned off. If you don’t do this, your tire could seal over and when you go back to race, you won’t have the traction you just had. Also, under a caution we’ll re-tighten our seat belts, check the gauges of the engine, make adjustments to the brakes inside the car, and clean off our helmets. We stay busy inside of a race car.

A sprint car is a direct drive race car. They need to be push-started to run and once they're running, there isn't a clutch or automatic transmission to slow way down or come to a stop without needing to be push-started again. Sprint cars need to be moving at 25 to 35 mph to stay running.

In the video, Kevin Ward Jr. comes halfway down the track, which looks narrow to begin with, to display his displeasure with Tony Stewart. Couple that with everything that I stated above and we have the tragedy that occurred Saturday night.

You can talk to me personally about racing at Bobby@KHAK.com