Tony Stewart is a Twit.

[Valdez Telehead]

So Stewart, a professional driver of high caliber, enters an amateur dirt track race. He zooms around these tiny tracks all macho. Last year he bumped an amateur woman driver off a track on purpose and sent her to a hospital with a broken spine.

Then yesterday he bumps this 20 year old guy into the wall where the driver wrecks his home built race car. The driver exits the car obviously pissed and pointing out Stewart as he comes around the track again. Stewart, a professional car driver does nothing to avoid the guy, even passing close enough to hit and kill a amateur car racer. How can a pro driver do this? He's the best in the world at least to some. Watch the video. Stewart did not even slow down as he came around the track to perhaps tease the kids up close, perhaps to close.

This is like a pro skier hitting someone on a rope tow or green slope.

I read this different. Stewart is a pro driver and should act and drive like one, not a brat bred from the macho world of NASCAR. I think he should be charged with something. It's to easy to say to say it was an unfortunate accident.

[Chugach001]

This is like a pro skier hitting someone on a rope tow or green slope.

This is like a pro downhill skier hitting some other skier (any other asshole) who ran out on the course.

This is a pissed off dude running downhill on slick clay in driving shoes (slick soles, zero traction) and trying to reverse direction back up hill at the last second. I love a good pit crew fight at the dirt track but it belongs in the pit, not on the track.

[twopass]

Murder 1. They should strap Tony into 'ol Sparky!

[Sugarloafer]

It's probably not the smartest move to get out of your car and run up track against the other race cars. I doubt they'll be any charges.

[Baaahb]

Yeah, I read it more like the other driver walked onto the Olympic downhill course to stop the skier coming down behind him.

[Valdez Telehead]

Stewart has a history of being a bully around the track. I think he tried to brush the kid back to bully him and got too close. Stewart knew exactly what was going on at the track on that lap. He bumped the kid against the wall on the previous lap. Of course the kid was upset. He could barely afford his car, unlike Stewart who is a millionaire having a hobby night around a bunch of amateur drivers. There was a yellow flag and the video shows Stewart actually sped up and stayed high on the track. He made no effort to avoid the kid, in fact he actually killed him. Now he playing like a sad puppy all apologetic hiding under the guise of "it happens. terrible accident, I have another race in a month….."

Meanwhile they should make drivers wear reflective clothing for night events. I used to attend dirt track races as a kid with my dad in OK. I saw lots of crashes (why we went!) and tempers, finger pointing and then drivers passing crashed cars. No one ever hit anyone, because the yellow flag slowed every down to a snail pace to prevent what happened to the kid Stewart hit. Not Stewart, he sped up.

Or it was like a skier who had crashed on a course, and then the next racer down on a closed course smashes him as he was yelling at his coach about a broken ski. Ski in control, drive in control if you a pro.

[noip]

you are clueless - those cars have a huge blind spot and are unmaneuverable at low speed - you use the throttle to steer them

just because tony stewart is a prick does not mean he committed man slaughter

on your way to being the douche you where at ttips?

[Valdez Telehead]

I was and still am a douche bag tele skier with more up-vert than you can stick a ski pole at. If that makes me a douche bag so be it. This is my first post on the snark page and perhaps my last because of idiot comments like yours cast out of some void in your brain.

Now I return to skiing, and not in Vermont but somewhere else that begins with the letter "V" and actually snows for real.

[noip]

I was and still am a douche bag tele skier with more up-vert than you can stick a ski pole at. If that makes me a douche bag so be it. This is my first post on the snark page and perhaps my last because of idiot comments like yours cast out of some void in your brain.

Now I return to skiing, and not in Vermont but somewhere else that begins with the letter "V" and actually snows for real.

well done a personal attack on where I live and my fitness level - classic - you never learn do you?

adios!

[tele.skier]

I was on a DIRT race team. We race 2 cars in different classes. I also helped out in the pits on a third car (our pit neighbor/friend) who didn't have a lot of crew to help him.

first,... you don't get out of the car unless it's on fire...... then you get out ASAP. Second, outlaw style cars have less rules about tire size differences and tire staggering, so they don't steer a straight line without some tire spin.... (yeah, they need to be going fast to steer predicably...)

As far as being a prick and "putting people into the wall" is concerned, Dale earnhart was the king of that. There's a whole contingent of racers who believe there is no limit to the amount of "rubbing" they can do to get past another car. That includes strategically tapping them at the right time to send them into the wall. I've seen a few brawls in the infield over that exact situation.

Personally, my team never raced that way, but some of the people we raced against did race aggressively and made no excuses about it... It did cause some ugly scenes in the pits and in the bar after the races ended...

I have no doubts that tony stewart may have tapped the kid into the wall, wrecking his car on purpose. Our team had that happen to us, and one of our drivers actually went after the other guy when we both got into the pits... It was a typical meelee of fists flying, wrestling, cursing, and threats of retaliation. There's a saying in racing. "Rubbing is racing", and it means that contact with other cars is part of the sport.... Some translate that into, "If I can knock you into the wall and wreck you, I'll do that." It's definately not how everyone races all the time, but some racers bring that to the track and you have to know who is that way and position yourself on the track so as to not give them the opportunity to wreck you without wrecking themselves....

As I said, Dale Earnhart was the posterboy for tapping you into the wall to end your day of racing... In my opinion, he was a douchebag, but to some he's their hero...

..... and to the point,.... yes, tony stewart could have wrecked the kid by tapping him into the wall. The kid shouldn't have gotten out of the car on the track. No one will ever know if tony stewart hit the kid on purpose, or tried to "near miss" the kid to scare him, or couldn't avoid the kid... I wouldn't automatically think he hit the kid on purpose. In fact, I think he would have wrecked his car to avoid hitting that kid if he had that option. Even the dirtiest racer on the track, knows that if they hit and killed someone (even in their car) that it follows you for the rest of your life... I have seen it happen.... and it's a known racing scenario that certainly tony stewart knew about and now has on his concious and resumee for the rest of his life...

[Matt J]

I haven't seen a lot of commentary but did watch the video when it first happened. Tele skier I think you summed it up nicely. I assumed much of what you wrote when I first saw this story. I do want to address this whole notion that he's a "d-bag" because he races outlaw. For him I'm sure this makes him "hardcore." Racing for the love and challenge of it not for the money. Probably keeps his instincts honed as well.

I would imagine many of you find any race car driver reprehensible much less one that just had a fatal accident.

[RobRoyMeans]

There are Champs and Chumps in all sports and someone very special comes along only rarely. My idea of a top NASCAR driver is Bill Elliott.

Elliott won NASCAR's Most Popular Driver Award 16 times,^[2] a record. He withdrew his name from the ballot for that award after winning it in 2002. In 2005, Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue declared October 8 as Bill Elliott Day in the state of Georgia.^{[citation needed]} Elliott has also been honored by the state legislature, having a stretch of road in his native Dawsonville renamed Elliott Family Parkway.

Bill ran a number of non-Cup races, most of the really good ones do. It keeps them sharp if they don't overdo it. Besides, it's a habit developed while they are working their way up to the Cup Series.

[Sugarloafer]

I often wonder whether people that post stuff like this even ski !

I was and still am a douche bag tele skier with more up-vert than you can stick a ski pole at.

[Matt J]

Doods been a ski guide for 25 years in Alaska and you wonder if he skis?

A better question might be why he thinks anyone cares that he bags any "up-vert."

[Sugarloafer]

Nah….I like my question better.

Doods been a ski guide for 25 years in Alaska and you wonder if he skis?

A better question might be why he thinks anyone cares that he bags any "up-vert."