Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Tony Stewart talks safety in IndyCar

   Tony Stewart, a two-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion and also former IndyCar Series champion, was asked Tuesday his thoughts on the accident two weeks ago that claimed the life of IndyCar star Dan Wheldon and what safety changes he might like to see.

   Here is Stewart's response:

   "It was a freak accident. It was something that nobody ever wants to see happen, but unfortunately it's a part of all of auto racing. It doesn't matter whether it's NASCAR or IndyCar or drag racing or motorcycle racing. It's just an aspect of our sport and everybody involved knows that and understands that and accepts it going into that," he said.

   "You know, it's definitely something that none of us wanted to see but I think it's been very easy and unjust for people to sit back on Monday and point fingers and say, well, this needs to be done and that needs to be done. And most of the people that are making the suggestions are not even people that are involved with race teams or sanctioning bodies and really don't know what they are talking about.

   "It really boils down to the basics of, it's auto racing. Auto racing, football, hockey, they are all dangerous sports. But we all love to do it and the fans love to watch it. I think safety has come a long way in all of our sanctioning bodies across the board. But you're still not going to make it 100% safe all the time, and everybody is doing everything they can to keep incidents like that happening in the future. But it's never going to be 100% safe. You're always going to have that element of danger that's involved in it."