There was a show out there not too long ago that dealt with analysing disasters. I have also been told this from other people too; Usually, for something to go disaterously wrong, at least three things have to fail. In this case, exactly three things happened wrong and as a result a kid is dead.
1. The organizers should have known better than to continually allow this type of behaviour. It is common in NASCAR and Sprint cars.
2. The kid regardless of the rules allowing it, should have never approached another car and driver like he did
3. Tony should have been more mature in his response to Ward acting like an ass.
Now the kid is dead so I think he paid more than his fair share of responsibility. That leaves the organizers and Tony. If Tony is charged with negligence, then the executive officers from the orginizing body also need to be charged with negligence and go to jail right along side Tony. And in my opinion, of the 3 responsible for this, the organizers hold the most responsibility. They have absolutely turned a blind eye to this type of thing. It is no coincidence that they have since rapidily changed the rules to account for this. I am a personal accountability guy and don't usually turn the blame on good people that want to help people enjoy their hobbies. But it wouold be total bullshit to say that the organizers didn't know this was bad from a safety perspective. They purposely turned a blind eye to this in the name of the spectacle. The last dirt track I attended there was a fight on the podium at the end of the night!!!! NASCAR and sprint car guys in general are the poorest examples of sportsmen out there. And NASCAR is culpable in their child like behavior.. When people act like spoiled children, parents need to step up and act like parents. Does that absolve the child from responsibility? NO. But when your prime responsibility is to set things straight when the other party hasn't, nor do you get a pass on neglecting your responsibility in stopping it.
NASCAR and USAC should be ashamed and somebody should be resigning.