But as is often the case with Stewart, he spent part of the session deflecting questions about an incident he’d rather forget: last week’s Chili Bowl confrontation with a fan in Tulsa, Okla.
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“I think the people who were there saw what happened, and that is all,” Stewart said at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Media Tour Thursday. “If anybody wants to know what happened, they should have been there to see for themselves.”
According to witnesses and reports, off-duty police officer Cpl. Kyle Hess of the Tulsa County Sheriff’s Office heckled Stewart, prompting the NASCAR star to confront him in the grandstands. Witnesses said Hess flipped off Stewart and yelled at him. The two had a brief conversation before Hess grabbed Stewart and security was forced to separate the two.
Stewart, who is facing a wrongful death suit over the sprint-car accident that killed driver Kevin Ward Jr. in August 2014, said he was not worried about his reputation following the incident.
“(People) make judgments about us no matter what we do so I’m not going to try to justify or explain what happened there,” Stewart said. “Everybody who was there knew what happened and I think you guys are smart enough to see on social media now the people who are coming out and talking about what happened.”
The incident went viral online and has been a hot topic on social media.
Stewart was at the event helping with track preparations. He has not run a dirt-track race since the 2014 accident at Canandaigua Motorsports Park in Upstate New York that killed Ward when he walked out onto the track. Stewart plans to continue racing on dirt tracks and short tracks following his final NASCAR season.
