Photo – Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images
Fan4Racing commentary on the Tony Stewart incident at the Chili Bowl Nationals this past weekend. Read Fan4Racing writers – Bryan Laws’ and Joe Lewis’ commentary as well.
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver Tony Stewart is gearing up for his last season, after announcing his retirement, late last year. Stewart has said he’d love to return to his roots and race again on dirt after the 2016 season is complete. Although it will be interesting to see how Stewart does with the new downforce package this year, many are wondering how Stewart’s last season in the Cup series will unfold. Will he go out on a high or will he continue as he has the last couple of seasons and run middle of the pack?
The story of how this season will end for Stewart has several more months to play out. But unfolding over the weekend is how Stewart’s season will begin. Most likely Stewart will once again be bombarded by media wanting to get his perspective on the incident at the Chili Bowl Nationals with a fan in the stands.
Stewart, is a huge fan of Sprint car racing and was at the annual Chili Bowl Nationals in Tulsa, Oklahoma, helping with track preparations over the weekend.
Apparently, a fan in the stands had a bit too much to drink and made his displeasure over Stewart’s presence known each time he was on the track in front of this particular fan. After the fan gave a finger gesture, Stewart left the track and entered the stands to face the fan. They were exchanging words when the fan put his hands on Stewart’s arms. Stewart tried to wriggle away from the fan – all while unsavory words continued between the two. The fan then pushed Stewart, he fell back and was struggling to get back up while a guy in a blue shirt accompanying Stewart into the stands pushed the fan, who also fell back into the stands. When Stewart gets up, he then gets into the fan’s face to give him a piece of his mind.
Later reports say the fan in the stand is a member of law enforcement and is now under investigation over his part in facing off with Tony Stewart at the Chili Bowl Nationals.
From where I sit, this incident brings to the forefront the dilemma facing Tony Stewart as he prepares for his last season in the Sprint Cup Series and the next chapter of his life.
Unfortunately, Stewart has a long string of similar incidents with fellow competitors, track co-owners, officials and members of the media, that are well documented. But there’s a big distinguishing difference in the most recent incident at the Chili Bowl Nationals and with the Kevin Ward incident.
In these incidents, Stewart is not the person initiating the confrontation. In the Kevin Ward incident, Ward exited his car, walked on track toward Stewart’s vehicle and jumped on to the rear of the vehicle. With the limited visibility of the Sprint car, Stewart had little chance of avoiding the disaster that resulted from Ward’s actions. It’s important to note law enforcement officials decided to not file criminal charges against Stewart for exactly this reason.
Similarly, with the fan this weekend, the fan was the first to provoke and then put his hands on Stewart and physically pushed him backward when Stewart came to talk with him. It’s important to also note, Stewart did not push the fan. It was the guy in the blue shirt accompanying Stewart into the stands that pushed the fan – and that was after the fan pushed Stewart backward.
While I agree, that it would have been better for Stewart to brush off the fan and continue his efforts on the track, I also believe that Stewart’s dilemma is… when is enough, enough?
Unfortunately, there are some fans that don’t know that concept and actually want to provoke Stewart into these types of incidents for their own personal notoriety and or perhaps even financial gain. Let me be clear, I’m not convinced yet, that is the case from this past weekend, as it may also just be a childish way to play out in front of the NASCAR star.
No one expects fans to always agree with any driver and there’s obviously some drivers, including Stewart that are polarizing with fans. For me what’s most disappointing over the last several years is a trend of so little respect for anyone disagreeing with some people, and their inability to let it go with agreeing to disagree.
Personally, I don’t think it’s an unreasonable expectation for a member of law enforcement to know how to let it go and agree to disagree.
In this case, Stewart confronting the fan was perhaps not a good idea and certainly brought him unwanted attention from the media heading into the NASCAR season openers at Daytona in just a few weeks. But, let’s not overlook that Stewart was repeatedly provoked in this incident and his actions show he simply wanted to talk to the provoking fan and showed more restraint than the one provoking – a member of law enforcement – who certainly could have handled this situation better as well.
The rest of this story will find if this turns into another ugly attempt by a fan to gain notoriety and/or financial gain. Personally, I understand Stewart’s point of view – he’s had enough of fans that don’t agree with him. They need to move on and agree to disagree.