Tony Stewart talks about incident that killed Kevin Ward Jr.: ‘This was 100 percent an accident’
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Version 0 of 1. NASCAR driver Tony Stewart is finally talking about what happened on the night of Aug. 9, when he struck and killed Kevin Ward Jr., 20, on a dirt track in Upstate New York. “I know 100 percent in my heart and in my mind that I did not do anything wrong. This was 100 percent an accident,” Stewart told The Associated Press on Thursday. It was the first time he spoke to reporters since an Ontario County, N.Y., grand jury decided Stewart would not face criminal charges in connection with Ward’s death. On advice of his legal counsel (the Ward family could file a civil suit for wrongful death against Stewart), the 43-year-old driver did not go into a play-by-play of what he remembers from that night. And apparently, he remembers a lot. “There hasn’t been a day that’s gone by that I haven’t thought about it. And it will be like that all your life,” he told the AP. “You are never going to forget about it. You are never going to not see it happen all over again. It’s going to be a part of me forever.” Stewart did open up about how he dealt with the aftermath. “You sit there and you wrack your brain, you try to analyze ‘Why did this happen?’ ” Stewart told the AP. “I made myself miserable just trying to make sense of it. … I just couldn’t function. I’ve never been in a position where I just couldn’t function.” The AP continues: His tumble into depression began almost immediately. Stewart left Canandaigua after the crash and went to Watkins Glen, where he was scheduled to race the next morning. It was roughly 2 a.m. when he got back to his motorhome, and he looks back now and says he was in shock. But Stewart is a racer through and through, and racers pick themselves up and race. So that’s what he told his team he would do. But when he woke up the next morning, he realized immediately he was in no condition to be in a car, nor did he have the desire to drive. His tumble into depression began almost immediately. Stewart left Canandaigua after the crash and went to Watkins Glen, where he was scheduled to race the next morning. It was roughly 2 a.m. when he got back to his motorhome, and he looks back now and says he was in shock. But Stewart is a racer through and through, and racers pick themselves up and race. So that’s what he told his team he would do. But when he woke up the next morning, he realized immediately he was in no condition to be in a car, nor did he have the desire to drive. “You race hurt, you race sick, and that’s the way racers have always been,” he told the AP. “You say you can go do what you need to do, and then it becomes very clear that you can’t.” Stewart ended up missing three races before coming back to race at Atlanta on Aug. 31. He finished 41st. Since then, Stewart, has improved slightly. He finished 15th at Richmond on Sept. 6, 18th at Chicago on Sept. 14 and 30th at New Hampshire on Sept. 21. He’s ranked 26th overall in the Sprint Cup standings with 609 points, as he prepares for another race Sunday at New Hampshire. Stewart’s mind may not be completely ready for competition, however. “You are part of something so tragic and so unthinkable, it’s hard to face anybody,” he told the AP. “It was hard to wrap my arms around this, and it still is. I haven’t been a part of society for more than six weeks. You are scared to be around anybody, you are embarrassed to be around anybody because of what happened.” Stewart faced — and is still facing — harsh public reaction to the incident and its aftermath. While his fans have supported him through the ordeal, his detractors — and there have been many, including Ward’s family — have thrown a slew of accusations Stewart’s way: that he acted irresponsibly when the caution flag was up; or worse, that he intentionally stayed high on the track, where Ward had exited his car after previously touching cars with Stewart, to intimidate the youngster. Stewart says he understands the anger, especially from Ward’s family. “I guess the end result is I don’t blame them for anything they say,” he told AP. |