By now, I’m pretty sure everyone is tired of hearing about Tony Stewart and Kevin Ward Jr. (I even kind of am.) But there are just a few things that still strike me about this story:
1. The absolute vitriol that attacked Tony after it happened. People immediately called him a murderer and suggested that NASCAR ban him for life. Of course people are entitled to their own opinions, but it seems like these opinions are really strong and vicious. I followed the story as it was breaking on Twitter (totally by accident, I should have been asleep) and my God at some of the tweets. There were people saying that Tony should rot in hell before it was even announced that Ward died. Even the divisiveness of this situation is surprising.
2. Can we please get people who actually know about racing to comment on these stories? It’s so obvious that the regular sports anchors know nothing about racing. I even heard one confuse Sprint Cup and sprint cars. Shit, let’s just pay Ricky Craven to do all the talking about NASCAR on ESPN from now on.
3. I’m seriously glad, though, that this time nobody is trying to say that dirt car racing should be ended immediately because it’s too dangerous. That’s usually a response I hear when there’s a death in a racing series.
4. I like that NASCAR banned the drivers from exiting their cars after a caution. I’ve heard a lot of people playing the devil’s advocate and saying that this could lead to drivers staying in a burning car because they’re afraid of getting a penalty. I even heard one person say that the driver might be staying in the car with a gas leak which could kill them. I think we’re going to extremes on this and almost endorsing a dangerous practice that should have ended years ago. Nobody should be getting out of their cars to flip someone off or point at them (Danica, I’m looking at you.) It’s unfortunate that it had to come to this for people to realize that it’s dangerous to walk on a race track where cars are currently driving, but I’m just glad it’s over now. I hope there aren’t any drivers who try to be weird about the rule, like staying in the smoking car and being like “Oh, well, I don’t want a penalty so I’m going to stay in,” but time will tell. I don’t want anyone else to die because of a silly decision.
I feel like everything else I could say has already been harped on. I just hope Tony does what’s best for him, whether that’s to keep racing or stop racing. I hope he’s able to find peace in whatever way he knows how. I’ll support him no matter what he does.
Rachael Flora 
