ADDS MANDATORY CREDIT - This July 5, 2014 photo provided by Empire Super Sprints, Inc., shows sprint car driver Kevin Ward Jr., in the vicotry lane with his car at the Fulton Speedway in Fulton, N.Y. Ward was killed Saturday, Aug. 9, 2014 at the Canandaigua Motorsports Park in Central Square, N.Y., when the car being driven by Tony Stewart struck the 20-year-old who had climbed from his crashed car and was on the darkened dirt track trying to confront Stewart following a bump with Stewart one lap earlier. (AP Photo/Empire Super Sprints, Inc.)
The aunt of the sprint car driver who was struck and killed by auto racer Tony Stewart on Saturday has blamed the NASCAR hothead’s temper for her nephew’s death, the New York Post reports.
“Thanks for thinking of our family tony Stewart when you decided to be a d***!,” said Wendi Ward, aunt of driver Kevin Ward Jr., who was fatally struck when he exited his vehicle to confront Stewart during the caution flag of a dirt track sprint car race in upstate New York on Saturday.
In the emotionally heated message posted Sunday on Facebook, Wendi Ward opened up about the initial shock of losing Kevin Ward.
“I feel numb, I look into the eyes of family and see a deep hurt that should not be there,” she wrote.
“My heart has pounded out of my chest for hours.”
She added that Kevin was very unique and talented, but had the tendency to be a spitfire.
“My nephew was one of a kind, a true race car driver, a piss head and a sweetie all in one,” she wrote.