Tony Stewart: incident with Kevin Ward Jr. was '100 percent an accident'
Tony Stewart publicly spoke directly about the events of August 9 for the first time on Thursday and said he knew the incident that left Kevin Ward Jr. dead was "100 percent an accident."
Stewart talked to the Associated Press on Thursday. While he couldn't describe what he remembered about the night on the advice of his lawyers – remember, the Ward family has strongly hinted at a civil lawsuit – he said the incident took its toll on him.
"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.
He told the AP that not being able to talk about the incident has prevented himself from moving forward and he's replayed the incident in his head over and over again.
"You sit there and you wrack your brain, you try to analyze 'Why did this happen?'" he said. "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."
An Ontario County (N.Y.) grand jury announced Wednesday that Stewart would not be charged in Ward's death. Stewart and Ward were racing together in August at Canandaigua Motorsports Park when Ward hit the wall. He climbed from his car to angrily confront Stewart and was struck by the right-rear tire on Stewart's car.
Ontario County District Attorney Michael Tantillo said Wednesday that toxicology reports showed Ward was under the influence of a large enough amount of marijuana to impair his judgment.
Stewart also hasn't left the house much. Racing in the Cup Series wasn't much of an interest to him from the time he made the decision to not drive at Watkins Glen to the Cup Series race at Bristol, the last race he missed. He returned to the track the next week at Atlanta where he made an emotional three-minute statement.
"You are part of something so tragic and so unthinkable, it's hard to face anybody," he said. "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."
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Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
