Tony Stewart says it’ll never be ‘normal again’

It’s been seven weeks since Tony Stewart struck and killed fellow driver Kevin Ward Jr. during a dirt-track race in upstate New York, ending the life of a promising young driver and forever altering the life of a three-time NASCAR Sprint Cup champion. Each day since then has been difficult, Stewart said during a 36-minute press conference Monday morning. Yet each day has gotten a little bit better for him, and he said he hopes it gets a little better for Ward’s family as well.

“I don’t think it’ll ever be normal again, but we’ll find a place to settle into and we’ll do the best that we can,” he said. “Hopefully through this we’ll somehow be a better person.”

Stewart spoke on a range of topics, from reiterating he knew in his heart that the incident that killed Ward was “100 percent” an accident, to saying he did not know when he would be ready to return to driving the sprint cars he loves or even visiting the famed track he owns in Eldora, Ohio. Stewart thanked the many people who reached out to help him through the healing process, as well as thanking his fans whose support overwhelmed him when he returned to racing at Atlanta Motor Speedway after missing three weekends of racing following the accident.

Yet he made sure that the focus was never far from Ward, and Stewart returned again and again to the human tragedy of the 20-year-old’s death, with his lengthiest response a reply to people choosing one side or the other in the incident and arguing about it passionately. To Stewart, this misses the point entirely.

“It’s worthless to pick sides,” Stewart said. “A young man lost his life, I don’t care what side you’re on. I’m in mourning, his family’s in mourning. Picking sides doesn’t solve anything. It’s a waste of time to pick sides. It’s disappointing at this point, instead of supporting each other and the racing community, it’s dividing people on a daily basis that would help each other. There’s no point.

”At the end of the day it’s not going to make anybody feel any better. Everybody’s entitled to their opinion. Everybody has made their decision, their side, on 100 percent of the information they got, which is 10 percent of the information. It’s more disappointing to me than anything. Even from people that were supportive of us, reading comments about the sheriff’s department and district attorney -- they did a good job taking the time they needed to do to get all the facts, to come to a very thought-out conclusion of this. You want to say let them do their job.

“It just shows how passionate people are. If they were on our side or Kevin’s family side, they were passionate about it. But people need to understand, there were a lot more facts they didn’t understand or haven’t seen.”

Stewart’s car struck and killed Ward during a sprint car race on a dirt track at Canandaigua Motorsports Park in August. Ward had approached the line of cars during a caution lap following apparently being spun out by Stewart a lap earlier. Stewart’s right rear wheel clipped Ward, throwing him through the air, and Ward was pronounced dead upon arrival at a local hospital. An autopsy showed the cause to be blunt force trauma.

Last Wednesday Stewart learned that he will not face criminal charges in Ward’s death. An Ontario County (N.Y.) grand jury announced it had found no evidence to move forward with a criminal case. At that time Ontario County District Attorney Michael Tantillo announced a toxicology report found enough marijuana in Ward’s body to “impair judgment,” a fact he believed went into the grand jury’s decision. Stewart was relieved, naturally, but remains saddened.

“Any time you’re facing something like that and your fate is in someone else’s hands, it’s natural to be fearful,” Stewart said. “All along I knew what the facts were. I knew what had happened and I know what happened. All the facts were presented, and their decision spoke and it was what I knew.

“As quickly as it was relief, in my heart at the same time it was the fact we lost Kevin. We lost a young driver that had a lot of talent.”

Stewart would not speak about the details of the accident, with an announcement made before the press conference stating Tantillo had done a thorough job of detailing that aspect. However, Stewart did speak of his reaction to the toxicology report.

“To me a young driver lost his life,” Stewart said. “It didn’t matter why. The end result was the same. No matter what was said it was still a tragic accident. I know in my heart it was 100 percent an accident, and that detail didn’t mean anything to me personally.”

Ward’s family vowed last week not to let the matter rest in an announcement to the media later that day. “All the other vehicles were reducing speed and not accelerating except for Stewart, who intentionally tried to intimidate Kevin by accelerating and sliding his car toward him, causing the tragedy,” a statement released to the Associated Press said. “The focus should be on the actions of Mr. Stewart. This matter is not at rest and we will pursue all remedies in fairness to Kevin.”

Stewart said Monday he would do whatever he could to help the Ward family through their own healing process. “I want to be available to them if they want to talk about it.”

Regardless of the civil aspect, Stewart will now try to begin to return to some of the normal activities of his life before the incident. Beyond “cheerleading” he has not had much involvement with his Sprint Cup team, Stewart-Haas racing, which is home to drivers Kevin Harvick, Danica Patrick and Kurt Busch. Harvick is the only driver in the Sprint Cup championship picture today, at third in the standings. Busch failed to make the cup after Sunday’s race at Dover. Fears that sponsors might abandon Stewart have so far been overblown. He said his team has mostly dealt with that aspect of the operation in his place, but noted officials from sponsors Bass Pro Shops and Mobile 1 have reached out to support him.

Stewart himself has raced five times since returning to the Sprint Cup Series, with results ranging from a 41st-place finish at Atlanta to 14th at Dover on Sunday, when he says he and his team put together their most complete race of the year.

Even in the darkest of times, Stewart did not consider ending his driving career.

“I love what I do,” Stewart said. “I love driving race cars. I think it might change as far as how much of it and what I would do. That would take a lot to stop.

“There was never a thought in my head about stopping. That would take the life out of me.”