Bryan Law’s Point of View: Tony Stewart Confronts Heckler At Chili Bowl Nationals

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Fan4Racing writer, Bryan Law’s commentary on the Tony Stewart incident at the Chili Bowl Nationals this past weekend. Read Fan4Racing and another Fan4Racing writer – Joe Lewis’ commentary as well. 

Here was hoping that the 2016 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season would start positive. Kyle Busch defending his newly won Sprint Cup Championship, Chase Elliott now the replacement for Jeff Gordon. Even looking forward to Brian Scott and XFINITY Series Champion Chris Buescher  succeeding at the top-level. Plus Clint Bowyer racing for one season for HScott Motorsports, as he is the driver in waiting to take the seat of a Stewart-Haas Racing driver who once again was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Tony Stewart has been known for altercations with fellow drivers, but it looks for the first time he got into it with a fan at the Chili Bowl Nationals in Tulsa. Several reports say that a fan flipped off Stewart, then Stewart went into the stands to face him. From watching the video several times, Stewart and the heckler tie up physically as the fan appears to shout

“I don’t like you”, and Stewart in turn calls the heckler a uncomplimentary name.

Security immediately got involved before it escalated.

Stewart looked to shake the heckler’s hands off his arms, then coincidentally the fan fell down. It appeared he tried to make it look like that Stewart shoved him aggressively and tried to stage it from what I could tell. Stewart then got into his face after he fell down and continued to blast at him. That’s where the footage ended from every video I’ve seen so far. This appears to once again be a possible negative start to the 2016 season, and not the way Stewart wants to kick off his Sprint Cup farewell tour.

It goes to show that this so-called heckler should have kept his mouth shut. Even so, Stewart should have shown restraint and left it alone. Stewart was reportedly at the Chili Bowl Nationals helping prepare the event. Stewart is a two-time winner at the event, but was not competing this year. It doesn’t seem that anyone was hurt. Only thing that’s left now is to see what NASCAR can find on this video after the smoke clears.