Vega Comments on Stewart-Ward Crash
BOSTON, MA — Boston Globe Sports Reporter Michael Vega was a guest on 98.5 The Sports Hub WBZ-FM (CBS Radio Boston) Monday afternoon for his insight on the fatal accident Saturday night at Canandaigua Motorsports Park that claimed the life of 20-year-old driver Kevin Ward, Jr. It has received extensive attention from national media. Admittedly the station usually did not include auto racing, but devoted over an hour of the Felger & Massarotti show to discuss it. The hosts for Vega’s interview were Marc Bertrand (subbing for Michael Felger) and Tony Massarotti.
“I cringed because, like you, I had the same reaction and it was as he climbed out of his car,” Vega said of his initial reaction to the footage. “I was like what are you doing? And then it was no, no, no, don’t ,don’t go on the track and then when he went beyond just the perimeter of his car, and straight out into the middle of the track, I couldn’t bear to watch it.”
Vega said that Ward “took his life into his own hands,” describing his actions as “a tragic case of road rage,” when Ward confronted Stewart after a lap 14 crash of the Lucas Oil Empire Super Sprints race. “Clearly the person that was trying to send a message was Kevin Ward, Jr., and he wound up paying with his life trying to convey that message.”
Vega insisted that Stewart did not intentionally harm Ward. He cautioned that we do not know Stewart’s intentions. Vega pointed to the uneven surface of the track and the track conditions. He compared the situation to someone jumping in front of you driving from Route 3 on the Cape.
“If someone wearing dark a dark helmet, a dark jersey, on a dimly lit track walks out in front of you with no time for you to react, I’m not sure that you can control your car or do whatever you can to avoid him or take the evasive maneuvers that you need to avoid someone.”
“…I don’t know that he had enough time to react to say I’m going to scare this kid, you know,” Vega said. “…When did he see this kid? At what point did he see this kid walking out on the track? And he probably didn’t see him until he was right on him, and you gotta kind of take that into consideration too.”
Vega believes that both may be at fault in the end.
“I think they might both be culpable in this instance,” Vega said. “The kid for getting out of the car and walking out into traffic. That clearly defies reason. Why would you do this? Why would you expose yourself to that?”
“My reaction was there might be two parties involved here, but the first party, Kevin Ward, really bears the bulk of the responsibility for making sure that you keep yourself safe on the track, ” Vega elaborated.
“And then Tony for his part, for modeling such behavior at the upper echelons of the sport. These are the kids who are probably seeing this from guys like Tony Stewart and thinking that its acceptable behavior, when really it’s not. And I think that to put yourself in harm’s way, to fling a helmet at a car that’s coming by, that’s not that’s not what I think (the) people at NASCAR want to model at the grassroots level.”
Vega is referring to Stewart’s 2012 helmet toss at Bristol after crashing while battling for the lead with Matt Kenseth. Bertrand pointed out the distribution of the clip through media and commercials.
“We will put it back in the hands of the drivers, and we will say, ‘Boys, have at it, and have a good time,” NASCAR Vice President of Competition Robin Pemberton said in 2010. Vega said that NASCAR’s policy of drivers policing themselves with NASCAR instituting the limits may be a problem for the series.
“I think they wanted to try and let these drivers show more emotion, to show more characters, to show more of themselves and I think that right now they’re in a bit of a conundrum,” Vega said. “Because as I said, they’ve modeled this behavior of aggression on the track and it filters down to the grassroots level.”
“Where did this kid learn to do that? So I think right now, they’ve got to sit down and take a step back and really examine is this the kind of behavior we want to model from the kids or the young drivers who are coming up?”
Vega interviewed young drivers last month about making an impact in the sport. All of them said they wanted to be respected by their competitors. Vega alluded to this possibly fueling Ward.
“Sometimes if you let a guy drive over you, you don’t establish respect,” Vega said. “And I think he was trying to grab some respect from Tony Stewart saying ‘Hey I’m calling you out because you wrecked me, and I know you wrecked me and you know you wrecked me.”
Vega spoke of the serious nature of driving Sprint Cars, the high horsepower, winged racers, saying “It’s no joke when you get behind the wheel of one of these things.”
“…You’ve got to understand right now that Tony Stewart was there because he was a champion of drivers such as Kevin Ward. He was there because he likes, he’s growing the sport and he subjected himself to injury last year.
Stewart broke his leg last August at Southern Iowa Speedway in a Sprint Car crash that forced him to miss the remainder of the Sprint Cup season. Vega said that Stewart’s determination to return to Sprint Cars this season may need second thoughts.
“I’m not so sure that this is going to have or might not give him pause to reassess that and I think that once you do something like this, are subject to some fatality, and you’re partially responsible and I’m sure he feels that way right now.”
When asked what other drivers thought of Stewart, Vega pointed to a conversation he had with six time Sprint Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson at Daytona earlier this year.
“He applauded Tony for being a guy who has done so much for the sport in trying to grow the sport,” Vega said. (Stewart purchased Eldora Speedway) “and he employs so many people within the sport at that grassroots level. He’s championed young drivers such as Kyle Larson putting him in Sprint Cars and bringing him along.”
Stewart fields his own World of Outlaws Sprint Car teams for retiring legend Steve Kinser and Knoxille Nationals winner Donny Schatz. Stewart won his most recent NASCAR Sprint Cup championship in 2011, the first owner-driver since 1992 to claim the title.
“He’s kind of cultivating the next wave of stars,” Vega said. “… (Stewart) more than anyone, has really kind of tried to champion the cause of stock car racing and tried to develop new talent, tried to bring jobs to people at the grassroots level. “
“Jimmie (Johnson) was really, I think, appreciative of what he was doing because really no other guys in the sport do what he does.”
Sources: Nicholas Teto, YankeeRacer.com