The world was shocked over an incident that rocked the NASCAR race. A lot mourned and watch in disbelief as fans as well as drivers alike could not grasp the idea when Stewart's car hit Ward and killed the driver instantly.
Stewart first bumped the victim's car and knocked it out. During his next round at the track, Ward climbed out of his car on the track to confront Stewart but then Stewart then struck the driver right after the victim left him car in order to confront him in the dirt track at Canandaigua (N.Y.) Motorsports Park.
Emergency workers were seen rushing to the incident. The track then cancelled the remainder of the sprint slate within five minutes while the Ontario County Sheriff's Department was on site to investigate further but had said that they do not see the situation as a criminal offense.
According to Jimmie Johnson "As much as I'm concerned for Tony and his well-being, the pain and sorrow that the Ward family and friends are going through. It's such a sad, sad set of circumstances."
Because of the incident, Stewart did not join the race at Watkins Glen as well as the last one in Michigan.
Just like Stewart, Kyle Larson also run the Sprint car racing. Larson talked about Stewart fondly saying "You would see his trailer pull in the track and you would get more amped up and try a little bit harder. He does a lot for the sport. When he goes to sprint car races it's his place to get away and relax a little bit. I always enjoyed when he would come to the race track and still enjoyed seeing him whenever he would venture out and go back."
But when asked about the accident, Larson refused to comment as according to him, he is not well aware of the situation that caused the mishap. He said instead "First off just thoughts and prayers still with everybody involved especially the Ward family. I have never raced there so I don't really have an opinion on much of anything because you don't know how the lighting is there. It's just really tough to have an opinion on it when you weren't part of it. Really there is only one guy that knows what happened -- or two, and one is not here anymore."
