Tony Stewart-Kevin Ward incident

Sure. But I do think it's important to parse Stewart's contribution. People are absolutely convinced that he "buzzed" the guy. They say it's "in character," when he's never done such a thing.

 

The folks pushing that theory haven't shown us an example of anyone "buzzing" someone else. Ever.

 

Until it's proven otherwise, Stewart has zero culpability.

 

Yep.

 

Thanks for having an open mind.

I can envision myself doing it. But I guess you know my natural reactions better than I do. Jesus.

 

No you can't.

 

If I was getting run over, I would reach and grab for anything possible, including grabbing hold of the thing that was hitting me - car, horse, whatever. In fact, that seems so self-evident that I find it weird that you're so adamantly against the idea, Dick.

 

You would reach eight feet in the air and grab a race car's wing?

 

I don't think it's possible, either. Your first reaction is going to be to get the hell back from whatever might hit you.

Go stand on the shoulder of an interstate. Edge up really close, so that the cars are zooming awfully close to you. You're telling me that if you thought one of those cars was going to actually hit you, your natural reaction might be to reach for/lunge toward them?

 

A) I was just talking about the general idea, which you seem to be dismissing out of hand. B) Not sure how tall Ward is, but I'm 6'3 so something eight feet in the air doesn't seem all that high. So yeah, I probably would.

 

If he was stumbling, he couldn't reach that high.

If he was intentionally trying to push himself away from Stewart's car, he wouldn't have reached that high.

 

Circling back to the journalism angle here, where is the big profile on Kevin Ward that helps me understand why an aspiring racer would — as Dick is contending — leap onto a race car like he's the hero (or villain) in a James Cameron film? I feel like I've read lots about Tony Stewart's legendary temper since this happened. Is this kind of thing out of character with Ward? I know he was a relative nobody, but this wasn't his first rodeo, even at age 20. He must have been racing go carts since he was around 14, right? If he has a temper, or a crazy streak, or a death wish, aren't there some anecdotes from his life out there that would support this lunacy? You don't even get into a race where Tony Stewart is also racing unless you've raced hundreds and hundreds of times previously, right? In all those races, he never kinda lost his shit?