Tony Stewart Just Purchased a Dirt-Track Sprint-Car Racing Series—Here’s Why He Did It

So, Tony Stewart has purchased the All Star Circuit of Champions Sprint Car Series. Shocked? You shouldn’t be. It is just the newest investment in the Tony Stewart Retirement Plan. There’s a method to Stewart’s dirt-track madness, and grassroots racing is far better for it. And it almost certainly will not finish with the All Stars.

Take into account this: Although the 2015 Chili Bowl midget racing finale didn’t take place until Saturday, January 17, Tony Stewart showed up the Monday just before. By Tuesday he was producing recommendations about preparation of the small indoor dirt track, by Wednesday he was on the radio giving directions to the track crew, and by Friday he was driving the tractor that was turning over the surface with a disc harrow.

“Tony is gonna personal this place,” stated one push-truck driver, and those around him quietly agreed. Soon after all, the 2 founders of the Chili Bowl, Emmett Hahn and Lanny Edwards, have been at it since 1987, and each lengthy ago passed the AARP eligibility age.

Stewart currently owns Eldora Speedway, purchased from legendary founder Earl Baltes, famous for his baleful pet quote, normally issued when looking upon the crowd of his often sold-out track: “If I coulda sold one particular far more hot dog, I may well have broke even.” Stewart, along with fellow NASCAR personalities Kenny Wallace and Ken Schrader, owns small Macon Speedway in Illinois. In 2006, he purchased into Paducah International Raceway in Kentucky, a beautiful dirt track that was struggling till Stewart and co-owners Schrader and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. stepped in. He owns Custom Operates, a business that makes R/C-controlled sprint automobiles.

And below Tony Stewart Racing, a single of his 12 companies, he owns one entry in the USAC Sprint Automobile division, one entry in the USAC Silver Crown Series, and 2 entries in the Planet of Outlaws Sprint Car Series. In WoO, TSR fields the No. 15 car for 6-time and present champion Donny Schatz and the No. 11 sprint automobile for 20-time series champion Steve Kinser.

Stewart’s developing dirt-track empire will hold him lots busy as soon as he decides to park the No. 14 Chevrolet for very good.

2 years ago, we asked Stewart why he bought Kinser’s group, understanding The King was preparing to retire from complete-time racing in 2014. “Because he’s the greatest champion we’ve ever had in sprint-automobile racing, and he deserves to go out on his personal terms, without worrying about sponsorship and paying the bills.” Which is precisely what occurred, as Kinser will run only a partial schedule in 2015.

Yes, Tony Stewart races in NASCAR. But he just cannot bring himself to abandon his roots in Indiana dirt-track racing.

Which brings us to Stewart’s buy of the All Star Circuit of Champions Sprint Car Series. The series is billed as “one of the oldest traveling sprint-auto organizations,” and it is, but it remains a distant second to the Planet of Outlaws, which was founded in 1978 by the late Ted Johnson to try to organize all the traveling sprint-car drivers and teams who migrated, like gypsies, from 1 unsanctioned occasion to yet another.

The WoO, beneath Johnson’s iron hand, promptly became the dominant sprint-car series. The All Stars have constantly battled regional sprint-car series, such as the Renegade series, which Stewart has already eliminated by bringing the Renegades in below the All Star banner.

The WoO has fought off threats ahead of, most notably the USA Sprint Auto Series and the National Sprint Tour. But with Tony Stewart behind the All Stars, we suspect there is considerably nervousness at the WoO planet headquarters in Concord, North Carolina, also property of the Planet of Outlaws late-model series.

So what will Tony Stewart do with the All Stars? Will he pull his driver Donny Schatz from the WoO and send him out on the All Stars circuit? Will Steve Kinser reserve his rare appearances for All Stars events?

No. 48 driven by Danny Dietrich competing in the All Star Circuit of Champions series.

We will know soon. The All Stars season begins at Bubba Raceway Park in Ocala, Florida, with 3 shows on February 5–7. Then the series moves a tiny east to Volusia Speedway Park in Barberville, Florida, to race February 11 and 12.

Or will they? The Bubba Raceway Park date is solid considering that Stewart and track owner and radio talk-show host Bubba “The Love Sponge” Clem are greatest friends, and Stewart sponsors Bubba’s sprint-auto-racing son, Tyler. But as for Volusia Speedway Park—it’s owned by the Planet Racing Group, which also owns the Planet of Outlaws. Do they truly want to market a series that all of a sudden may turn out to be a main rival?

Stewart stated at the ongoing NASCAR Media Tour that it will be a even though just before he returns to the seat of a sprint vehicle, as he’s nonetheless recovering from the severely broken leg suffered in a sprint-vehicle crash in 2013, as well as from the death of young sprint-auto driver Kevin Ward, Jr., killed when he was hit by Stewart’s sprint auto in 2014.

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That Stewart desires to enhance his dirt-track racing portfolio surprises no 1, though if he was going to get a series, a lot of of us suspected it might be the American Sprint Car Series, which has pointedly positioned itself one particular rung down the ladder from the World of Outlaws and has backing from Lucas Oil. ASCS just happens to have been founded by Emmett Hahn of Chili Bowl fame. But let’s face it: There’s a great likelihood Tony Stewart isn’t through constructing his dirt castle.

Back to the scene at the Chili Bowl: Stewart had another leg operation a handful of weeks prior to the race, and he walks with a limp. Except, some of us noticed, when anything occurred on the track at the Chili Bowl that needed Stewart’s instant focus, and he’d stride off, no limp evident. That’s how Stewart feels about dirt-track racing—and why the All Star Circuit of Champions may possibly be in for a large season.

Tony Stewart Just Purchased a Dirt-Track Sprint-Car Racing Series—Here’s Why He Did It

Is Justice for Kevin Ward, Jr. Justice for Tony Stewart?

Grief makes you do—and say—things you may well not otherwise. So do lawyers. Shortly after an Ontario County, New York, grand jury declined on Tuesday to charge Tony Stewart in the death of Kevin Ward, Jr., the 20-year-old sprint-automobile driver tragically killed when he walked into the path of Stewart’s vehicle on August 9, the Ward loved ones issued this statement:

“Our son got out of his auto throughout caution although the race was suspended. All the other autos have been minimizing speed and not accelerating except for Stewart who intentionally attempted to intimidate Kevin by accelerating and sliding his auto towards him causing this tragedy.

“The concentrate ought to be on Mr. Stewart and not my son. This matter is not at rest and we will pursue all remedies in fairness to Kevin.”

With criminal charges having now been ruled out, this can only be interpreted as an announcement of intent to file a wrongful-death civil lawsuit against Tony Stewart.

It’s indisputable that an upset Ward climbed from his disabled car soon after he hit the wall of the track in Canandaigua, New York, where he and Stewart were competing in an Empire Super Sprint series race. Stewart’s car had slipped higher in the corner, pinching Ward into the wall.

An naturally angry Ward stalked toward Stewart’s vehicle, nevertheless traveling at maybe 40 mph beneath the caution flag, and Stewart’s appropriate rear tire hit Ward. In Ontario County, a grand jury of 23, presented with the proof, voted in majority to “no bill” Stewart, which means they found insufficient evidence to indict him. All of this was integrated in District Attorney Michael Tantillo’s press conference on Tuesday, and none of it was unexpected.

This was, although: Tantillo said that a toxicology report on Ward “indicated [that] at the time of operation, he was under the influence of marijuana” and that “the levels that were determined had been sufficient to impair judgment.”

Probably this does not totally explain why a young driver not previously recognized as a hothead would climb from his car and confront yet another driver, at speed, more than a comparatively minor accident—it seems Ward could have changed his flat correct rear tire and continued, and some experienced dirt-track drivers have viewed the now-infamous video and recommended Ward should have backed off, turned low, and driven back beneath Stewart’s vehicle. But rather than the need to explain why a driver would climb out of his auto, the question is now why a driver would climb into a 700-hp dirt-track sprint auto beneath the influence of marijuana. They’re hazardous race automobiles, a point driven residence by the death these days of a sprint-vehicle driver during practice for a race in Wisconsin.

Specifically how the Ward household and their attorneys program to make their case is unclear. Several tracks and sanctioning bodies, which includes NASCAR, rapidly enacted guidelines prohibiting a driver from leaving a disabled vehicle on a still-active track—except, of course, in an emergency, such as a fire—until security crews have arrived and taken manage. Therefore it would be tough to suggest climbing from a vehicle and walking toward a moving race automobile, although not especially prohibited by the track guidelines at the time, is an acceptable concept.

The statement suggests “all the other vehicles” have been capable to miss Ward, Jr., but the video shows that only one particular had to miss him, and Ward wasn’t functioning his way into the path of that distinct auto. And to suggest that Stewart “was accelerating and sliding his car” toward Ward would seem to meet the common of at least negligent homicide, and the grand jury evidently did not uncover adequate proof that Stewart had potentially committed such a crime.

To numerous, it appears that still-grieving parents are unwilling to accept that their son primarily triggered his personal death. Or that there’s an attorney involved properly aware that Stewart has pocketed well over $ 100 million in NASCAR race winnings alone and that he holds a number of other assets.

New York is a “Pure Comparative Fault” state, which means that a plaintiff’s “damages will be lowered by their own liability, but not barred fully.” Which is to say that even if a judge or jury finds Kevin Ward, Jr., 95 percent liable for his own death, they could still locate Stewart 5 % liable.

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And if the person against whom these damages are assessed has a lot of funds, 5 % of that can nevertheless be a lot of income. In this sense, it is feasible that Ward, Jr.’s family could get the vindication they seek.

Is Justice for Kevin Ward, Jr. Justice for Tony Stewart?

Tony Stewart Speaks Publicly for the Initial Time Following Kevin Ward, Jr.’s Death [w/ Video]

Tony Stewart speaks at Atlanta Motor Speedway on August 29, 2014.

We saw the Tony Stewart press conference at Atlanta Motor Speedway this afternoon—you can watch his statement in the USA Today video at the bottom of this post, as nicely as a longer video of the conference—and we now know, properly, pretty significantly nothing far more than we did this morning.

A clearly shaken Stewart, appearing to be near tears, study a brief statement he wrote, and its paraphrased content was what you’d anticipate: He has suffered substantially, but it is nothing compared to what Kevin Ward, Jr.’s family must be going by way of after he was killed in a sprint-vehicle accident earlier this month. Stewart mentioned he expects to be able to answer questions about the incident in the future, but he declined to do so nowadays out of respect for the ongoing investigation by New York’s Ontario County sheriff’s division.

As soon as Stewart left the conference space, Brett Frood, who has handled the racer’s organization interests considering that 2004, remained to answer some concerns from hand-picked reporters. Answers to some of these queries: Stewart has not spoken to the Ward family members, but he did send flowers and a card to the funeral. Also, Stewart’s second family at the racetrack will now aid him continue the grieving approach, and “putting on his helmet” need to assist Stewart deal with it all. The choice to return to racing was “100 percent” Stewart’s.

In retrospect—and contrary to our opinion when we identified out he was racing this weekend—it may have been smart for Stewart to make this statement now, considering that the ongoing investigation gives him an out for getting to answer the difficult queries.

Tony Stewart drives his number 14 Chevrolet stock auto in the course of practice at Atlanta Motor Speedway today.

Amongst the nonetheless-unanswered questions: Where has Stewart been? Did he see Ward on the track before the speak to? Has Stewart had any expert therapy? Will he ever race sprint cars—or at any short track—again?

In the end, it was the saddest and most uncomfortable we’ve ever noticed Tony Stewart. And like him or not—and this author does—he gave a extremely excellent impression of a man going by way of absolute hell correct now.

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NASCAR president Mike Helton spoke not long soon after Stewart’s press conference. He said that if Stewart wins this week or next—the final chances to win a race and hence qualify for NASCAR’s “postseason” Chase for the Championship—Stewart would be eligible for the Chase, even though he missed the previous 3 races. The guidelines say that drivers have to try to qualify for each and every occasion, but NASCAR also involves a provision for “special circumstances” Helton said that this scenario counted.

Stewart was the 10th-quickest driver in practice nowadays for Sunday’s race.

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Tony Stewart Speaks Publicly for the Initial Time Following Kevin Ward, Jr.’s Death [w/ Video]