As a racing fan (Indy Car is my preferred choice – I love open wheel racing), I felt sick to my stomach upon learning that there had been a fatal crash at Canandaigua Motorsports Track in New York. But what was worse was the speculation leading up to the announcement of the fatality – because it involved NASCAR driver Tony Stewart, who has become notorious over the course of his career for having a short-fuse temper and a willingness to confront other drivers.

The first reported stories actually claimed that Tony Stewart intentionally ran over 20 year old Kevin Ward, Jr., as Ward approached Stewart, who was still in his car. As the videos and details emerged – including the video of the incident itself, which Deadspin has, along with their original story (their original headline, however, claiming intentionality, has now been altered). The video is awful.

Ward, a 20-year-old driver, had crashed following a bump with Stewart one lap earlier. Ward and Stewart were racing side-by-side for position as they exited a turn. Ward was on the outside when Stewart, on the bottom, seemed to slide toward Ward’s car and crowd him toward the wall. The rear tire of Stewart’s car appeared to clip the front tire of Ward’s car, and Ward spun into the fence.

Video showed Ward walking from his crashed car onto the racing surface as cars circled by, and, as he gestured at Stewart’s passing car, he was struck. Ward was standing to the right of Stewart’s familiar No. 14 car, which seemed to kick out from the rear and hit him.

It is a horrible, horrible sight. Ward was declared dead upon his arrival at a local hospital. Stewart, who is reportedly shaken and “emotional” about what happened, is not racing today in the Cheez-It 355 race at Watkins Glen International today, after initial reports that he would.

While everyone has assumed the worst about what happened – that Stewart’s temper got the best of him in the heat of the moment and he intentionally ran over Ward – cooler heads are pleading for a little sanity. The most powerful comment, in my mind, came from Dale Earnhardt, Jr., who knows only too well that racing is not a “safe” sport, after losing his father, the legendary Dale Earnhardt, at the Daytona 500, 13 years ago.

We will all loose someone in our time. When a loss is sudden and unexpected, the pain & sadness is suffocating. Prayers for the Ward family.

— Dale Earnhardt Jr. (@DaleJr) August 10, 2014

Local authorities are investigating the whole incident, and asking for any amateur video that was shot in order to get as many angles of what happened as possible. However, the armchair race experts have already tried and convicted Tony Stewart. Hurray for Twitter, where everyone is an expert on everything in 140 characters or less!

Racing is a sport of seconds and inches. You are seconds and inches away from winning, losing, or potentially dying. Many people don’t like the sport because of that. Fine. But there are many people who do like watching races, and those who race are charged by adrenaline and emotion. Last night, Kevin Ward and Tony Stewart tangled on the race track. Ward, instead of waiting for race officials to pull a yellow flag (if needed) to clear the track, got out of his sprint car and walked into the middle of the race, and it looks like he was attempting to point out or confront Stewart. ON THE TRACK, DURING THE RACE. Tony Stewart’s car struck him, and Ward is dead of those injuries. Did Tony Stewart intentionally hit him in a fit of temper? That will be the question that will haunt the rest of Tony Stewart’s career, because of his reputation. If Ward had stayed in his car until race officials got to him, would he still be alive? Yes. Am I blaming Ward? I don’t want to, but no matter how mad you are, you CANNOT walk onto a track during a race. Would there be a question of this being intentional if it hadn’t been Tony Stewart who hit him? Probably not.

This is a sad, horrible tragedy. What is worse is that it was avoidable. How many bad choices were made in the heat of the moment? I don’t know. We will never know what Kevin Ward thought he was doing by going out on the track. Only God knows what went through the heart and mind of Tony Stewart in that moment. The law will get to make a formal judgment on what happened. The court of public opinion is already declared not just culpability, but intentionality. And racing fans are reminded, yet again, that this sport is sometimes not a forgiving one. One small mistake can mean death.

Pray for Kevin Ward’s family as they grieve. Beware of those who pass instant judgment on a sport that the mainstream media disdains and understands even less.