Tony Stewart went Sprint Car racing last night. It went badly. After an on-track incident which put Kevin Ward Jr. into the wall. Ward got out of his car and wandered down the track toward the circling field. As Smoke’s car came by he moved closer to express his displeasure and ventured too close to the right rear wheel of Tony’s car and was struck. The 20-year-old has died of his injuries. May those impacted by his death find peace.
Initially Stewart-Haas Racing said Tony would drive the 14 in today’s Sprint Cup race at Watkins Glen. A few hours before the race at a press conference Competition Director Greg Zipadelli announced that Tony had decided not to drive today. Regan Smith drove the 14 during the race.
Tony Stewart returned to Sprint Car competition last month after breaking his leg last August in a Sprint Car race in Iowa. Stewart was unable to race for the remainder of the 2013 season.
Ricky Craven advocated for the creation of rules to punish drivers who leave the car and put themselves in harm’s way. Dude! If you don’t know enough about cars to know that getting too close to a moving car is dangerous, you don’t need to be near cars.
The Nationwide race was boring. It was so boring, a few hours afterward I was wishing the Nationwide cars had raced. I’d forgotten the race already. Marcos Ambrose won.
The bad luck streak for the 48 continued this week as a red flag for a wreck threw a wrench into their strategy and a late race wreck relegated him to a 28th place finish. Kyle Larson got into the rear of Matt Kenseth sending him into Jimmie causing Jimmie to spin. Regan Smith had nowhere to go and ran into the 48. Newman ran into the wall and went spinning and collected Michael McDowell resulting in an almost 2 hour red flag as the crew repaired the wall on which McDowell’s car landed.
It’s funny, Jeremy Mayfield says he didn’t do what the drug test says he did. He’s still struggling against NASCAR’s sanctions. AJ Allmendinger says he didn’t do what the drug test says he did, but he had high powered owners on his side and today he won the race at Watkins Glen. Now, one big difference between the two cases, AJ says he didn’t do what the test said, but he did go through the Road to Recovery program. Jeremy says he didn’t do what the test said and therefore doesn’t need the Road to Recovery. He’s not been in a Sprint Cup car since. He has the idea that he shouldn’t admit to wrongdoing and participate in a program designed for the guilty if he isn’t guilty of wrongdoing. It appears his is the example case, because everybody else who has failed the drug tests simply take the same road AJ took – no one seems to be innocent, or if they are, they don’t bother fighting to clear their names. I guess the test is simply 100% accurate. I have a feeling that it is simply easier to go along with the program and hope to get a new job with another team. I find it interesting also that NASCAR says it won’t penalize a driver who completes the program, but they typically get fired from their jobs immediately. Of course, that’s not NASCAR punishing them, it’s the teams punishing them, but the teams wouldn’t know if NASCAR didn’t test and report.
In NASCAR news this week:
- Driver Killed In Sprint Car Incident With Stewart.
- NASCAR Issues Practice Penalties.
- On Second Though, Gibbs Will Not Appeal Penalties.
- National Guard Bowing Out of Motorsports Sponsorships.
- Picquet Jr Goes Cup Racing.
- Gordon Continues The Drive To End Hunger.
- Award For Ganassi.