Tony Stewart Speaks Publicly For 1st Time Since Ward Incident

NASCAR Sprint Cup driver and team owner Tony Stewart spoke publicly Monday morning for the first time since the August incident that changed his life.

Stewart has been mostly a recluse since a dirt track car he was driving collided with driver Kevin Ward Jr. who got out of his car after a spin out at an upstate New York track.

There were tons of questions as to whether Stewart deliberately hit Ward or if it was just an accident. Ontario County, New York prosecutors investigated what happened and presented their evidence to a Grand Jury and that Jury came back just last week and said they could not move forward with charges.

A subdued Stewart sat alone at a podium and took questions from a large group of assembled media types:

--Stewart: "I know what happened and I know it was an accident"

--Stewart said he would like to talk to the Ward family, but does not think he needs to because he has closure in the matter. Though he added he would make himself available at any time if the family wants to talk.

--He described the awkward feeling of not doing anything other than going from the track to his track motorhome to his office and his home and nothing else. And that he ran the smaller tracks for fun, it helped keep him energized and he misses that.

--He's not done any fan appearances or corporate appearances since the incident, though he does feel like he will begin to do some in the near future.

--He also talked at length about realizing there is more to life than just racing and that he needs to round things out and do more of things he's put on hold because of his devotion to racing.

--Stewart said he avoided reading reports of what happened for a long time but has eventually started reading. He talked about the wrongness of "picking sides" at what happened. He said it's about an accident that cost a man his life adding "picking sides" takes away from Ward and himself.

--"There's been nothing normal about my life the past 7-weeks". Stewart describing what he's been doing and his interaction with his race team and others.

--Stewart was asked his thoughts on toxicology reports stating Ward was "under the influence"--"It didn't matter to me a young driver lost his life and that's all that mattered".

No huge revelations in the press conference and we did not expect any. A somber Stewart related what he's been going through and it's VERY clear this has made a huge impact on his life.

While he says what happened has not impacted the back half of his race season, the fact is it had to have some impact.

It's very clear, at least to us, Stewart has been struggling with this. He's also having to deal with Ward's family calling for more action and insisting that what happened was intentional.

Coming out and addressing the issue at hand at one time was perhaps the best thing he and his team could have done. We know he's been avoiding having to talk about it, and doing it with everyone in the building limits him having to be chased and asked about it in perpetuity.

It was very interesting to see...and hear.

Tony Stewart Incident Goes to Grand Jury

We knew last week that investigators had finished their work in upstate New York, trying to piece together exactly what they believe happened when Tony Stewart collided with Kevin Ward, killing Ward on a dirt track.

Ontario County DA Michael Truillo announced Tuesday afternoon that the case would get presented to the county's Grand Jury.

The incident, which happened at a track in Canandaigua, New York on August 9th, was a result of Ward spinning out during a race, which may or may not have been caused by Stewart. Tony's car came around the track the next lap, Ward got out of his car and at least according to video, moved towards Stewart's car.

That's when he was hit and eventually died from the crash.

Stewart spent three weeks on the sidelines and investigators have spent a month trying to collect videos and photos of the incident in an effort to piece together what may have happened and whether or not Stewart intentionally hit Ward.

What should be of concern here is that the D.A felt he had enough information to go to the Grand Jury about this. And while they may not feel there is enough compelling evidence to hand down an indictment, it appears...at least on the surface their may indeed be enough to charge Stewart with a crime.

Now we just wait and see.

No date has been set for presentation to the Grand Jury, but since they are usually rotated in most places on a fairly quick rotation, we'd expect it to happen soon.

Stay tuned.

Our pals at ESPN got legal guru Roger Cossack on the phone to discuss:

Tony Stewart Won't Race This Weekend Either

((ht: nascar.com))

Suffice to say the past two weeks have not been kind to NASCAR team owner and driver Tony Stewart.

By now, most of you know about the incident at a central New York dirt track Saturday night that cost promising driver Kevin Ward Jr his life after getting tangled with Stewart's car.

After initially saying he wanted to race in the Sprint Cup race at Watkins Glen the next day, Stewart relented and handed over the #14 Stewart-Haas racing car to Reagan Smith.

Thursday afternoon, Stewart's race team released a statement saying Tony would not race in the upcoming race in Michigan. They did not elaborate other than to say that veteran driver Jeff Burton would drive his car on Sunday.

Stewart has drawn a lot of heat on social media and other places for what appears to be a limited response to a horrible accident/mistake. No charges have been filed and we'd be surprised if eventually they were.

But that should not absolve the millionaire multiple times over Stewart from trying to something to help. As far as anyone knows--and we hope we are wrong, Stewart has avoided the public at all costs and has thus far not reached out to the Ward family.

Stewart will eventually get back behind the wheel and investigators in Ontario County, New York will eventually finish their investigation. And no matter the outcome, we suspect someone is not going to be happy with the results.

Fox Sports gives us the video update:

Should Tony Stewart Race at Watkins Glen? (UPDATED)

If you are just waking up and reading through the overnight news, you probably low about the Tony Stewart incident at an Ontario County, New York dirt track.

A driver was killed after being hit by Stewart's race car during a heat at the Canandaigua Motorsports Track is being investigated by the county police department. The investigation began after 20-year old Kevin Ward, the driver in question, died in a local hospital.

We'll spare you the video in this post, it can be seen in our original report on the incident.

Scroll down or page or click on the link RIGHT HERE

The reason for the follow up column, according to Stewart-Haas Racing, Stewart still plans on racing Sunday afternoon at Watkins Glen. No, Stewart is not facing charges from the incident at the present time, but we're stunned that he feels like racing less than 24-hours later.

Will Stewart be charged: That might be difficult to prove. If you've seen the video, you can plainly see Ward, after being spun out by Stewart, get out of his car and he's quite visibly angry. You can also see another driver avoid Ward who is gesturing towards Stewart. Stewart appears at first glance to try and swerve around him as well, but wasn't able to get out of the way.

The Ontario County sheriff's department is investigating the incident as they should. And yes, someone died at the track. There should be an investigation. A detailed one at that.

Reports say Stewart is devastated and he should be. It's a perfectly normal reaction to a horrific incident.

But how do you get past it quickly?

We have interviewed Stewart multiple times and are well aware that he lives, eats and breathes racing. There are very few other things in life that he does or wants to do. He may feel as though racing will take his mind off the incident.

But how?

NASCAR is following all developments and at the current time does not feel they should keep Stewart off the track. They don't feel ready to keep him away. If for some reason charges get filed, then we have a different conversation. We aren't there yet.

The part that is difficult to understand, and you'd have to get inside Stewart's head to know the reason he's going back on the track. The question we and probably you have though is this: "How do you focus on what you are doing, knowing an accident you were involved in killed a man just a few hours before?"

Here's video from WROC-TV of a press conference held by Ontario County Sheriff Philip Provero who talks about the incident and how the investigation is proceeding:




UPDATE---10:25 a.m: Per Stewart's Crew Chief Greg Zipadelli: Stewart will not drive in the race at Watkins Glen. Reagan Smith will drive the car for this race.

Ed Note: This is the right thing to do. As much as Tony may have wanted to race, out of deference to what happened to Kevin Ward, he needed to not be behind the wheel today. Nobody knows how the investigation will progress, but this is the proper decision.

ICYMI: Tony Stewart Hurt in Crash May Be Done for 2013 (Video)

Good thing Tony Stewart's other job is car owner instead of just car driver.

"Smoke's" 2013 chances at winning the Sprint Cup are all but gone after Stewart broke his leg in 2-places during a dirt track crash Monday night at the Southern Iowa Motor Speedway.

Reports say Stewart broke his fibula and tibia on his right leg, which will make it extraordinarily difficult for him to drive, since all the pedals in a race car (or any car) are on the right side.

The crash happened just 5 laps from the finish of a 40 lap race and in the aftermath, Tony Stewart was rushed to a Des Moines Hospital where he immediately underwent surgery.

Stewart, who is 11th in this weeks Sprint Cup standings has already had his team release a statement that his car won't race in this weeks race at Watkins Glen. The guess is, his season is done, it's just a matter of whether the team and owner (Stewart) decides it's worth having someone else climb into his car to ride it out.

Here's video of said crash:


PM UPDATE: Looks like Max Papis will be filling in for Stewart at Watkins Glen. He tested at Road Atlanta as an ice breaker and, apparently, passed the SHR test...

Tony Stewart Walks Away From This...???

((HT: From The Marbles/Jake Phelps))

We all know that Tony Stewart loves him some racing...

His fondness for dirt tracking was evidenced by his love for Eldora raceway, the truck race there recently, and showing up at Ohsweken Speedway in Ontario, Canada for the 2013 Ohsweken Northern Summer Nationals. Smoke was battling another Stewart, Shane, when this happened...

Here's what he survived and walked away from...


Hasn't he done this before in larger cars...???
((HT: NASCAR on ESPN))


Yup... he had...