Anyone here ever driven a sprint car on a dirt track? No? Didn't think so.

 

Here's the deal: I got the chance to once. It was a tremendous gift from a friend who hooked me up with a buddy of his that raced sprint cars. I got a primer on how the car handled, then was allowed to take it on the track for a while. Just me, no other competitors, and here's what I remember:

 

Those things are loose. Like, spin on a dime loose. They are incredibly difficult to control in turns, and using the throttle--not the brake--was the smoothest way through for me. When I going through turns without the throttle, I spun. When I used the throttle to provide some counter-momentum to the car's desire to spin, I was able to get through the turn. I was not going fast by any stretch of the imagination, either. I don't know exactly how fast I was taking it, but even at low speeds, the thing was difficult to control, and my tail slipped out on me quite a bit. Everything about those cars, in my recollection, was completely counter-intuitive to what you know about driving a traditional car on pavement.

 

Was it avoidable? I don't know. I've spent all of an hour behind the wheel of a sprint car, and I will readily admit that I displayed no talent driving it and had no burning desire to ever try again. I'm not sold on the concept that one iota of what occurred was a conscious decision on Stewart's part, but I'm not qualified to say. What I can say is that it takes a special breed of idiot to walk onto a slick, dark track full of <i>cars that are designed to slide</i> and see how close you can get to one coming out of a turn. Kevin Ward, Jr., is the newest proud recipient of a Darwin Award, and when his family does sue, I hope the sheer idiocy of his actions is brought to light. I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if he was thinking to himself, "Hey, maybe I'll get a big break if I get on Youtube giving Tony Stewart some crap as he drives by."

 

Stewart might have goosed the throttle to get out of the turn, or he might have goosed it to kick up some dirt. That will come out in time, and if Stewart was aggressively goosing the throttle to kick dirt at Ward, then he deserves whatever punishment comes his way. What is 100% certain is this: if Kevin Ward doesn't get out of his car and walk down the track, he doesn't get hit, and he doesn't die. That's ultimately what it boils down to. He's dead because he was an idiot, and he put himself in the worst possible place at the worst possible time.

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