NASCAR Sprint Cup racer Tony Stewart in altercation with heckler
Three-time NASCAR Sprint Cup and 1997 IndyCar champion Tony Stewart was involved in an altercation with a heckling spectator at a major midget car event on Friday night
Stewart went into the grandstands at the Chili Bowl Nationals, one of the United States' largest and most prestigious midget races, at the River Spirit Expo Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, to confront a man who had been loudly deriding him.
The Stewart-Haas owner/driver was not competing in the Chili Bowl as a driver but is car owner for several of the top drivers contesting the indoor racing event and was driving a tractor used to prepare the track surface.
The confrontation was captured on video by spectators. The heckler was revealed to be off-duty sheriff's deputy Kyle Hess, who reportedly shouted and made obscene gestures at Stewart every time he passed.
VIDEO: STEWART IN ALTERCATION WITH SPECTATOR
The Tulsa Sheriffs Office is conducting an investigation. Hess was not on duty at the time and no police report was filed by either Stewart or Hess after the incident.
Stewart has not driven in a dirt-track race since his car struck and killed Kevin Ward Jr, who was walking down the track to confront him after a collision, at Canandaigua Speedway in New York in August 2014.
The 2016 Cup season will be Stewart's last as a driver but he intends to compete in dirt races around the US.
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