Tony Stewart hit fellow driver Kevin Ward during a dirt-track race at Canandaigua Motorsports Park on Saturday night after Ward got out of his car following a collision between the two drivers.
Video shows Stewart and Ward making contact with each other and Ward spinning out of the Empire Super Sprints series race. Ward was so upset he got out of his No. 13 car and began pointing at Stewart, who continued around the track as a caution had come out.
Stewart’s No. 14 car then approached Ward and began turning sideways. Ward appeared to get caught under the right rear tire, dragged and thrown.
Racing was cancelled after the incident, which has left Ward in a life-threatening condition.
Tyler Graves, a sprint-car racer and friend of Ward’s, was a witness to the event and told Sporting News what he saw.
“Tony pinched him into the frontstretch wall, a racing thing,” Graves said. “The right rear tire went down, he spun on the exit of (Turn) 2. They threw the caution and everything was toned down. Kevin got out of his car. … He was throwing his arms up all over the place at Tony for most of the corner.
“I know Tony could see him. I know how you can see out of these cars. When Tony got close to him, he hit the throttle. When you hit a throttle on a sprint car, the car sets sideways. It set sideways, the right rear tire hit Kevin, Kevin was sucked underneath and was stuck under it for a second or two and then it threw him about 50 yards.”
Graves said he did not believe it was intentional.
“You never mean to do something like that,” Graves said. “Kevin was pissed and he let Tony know. And Tony was trying to give the message back that he wasn’t happy either. He went over the line with it.”
We are praying for Ward.
Video is below.
