If you're a racing fan and if you've been to enough races or watched enough races, you know it's common to see tempers flare.

It's part of the drama and allure of racing whether it be at a short track like our local Mahoning Valley Speedway or a famous Sprint Cup track like nearby Pocono International Raceway.Retaliation in racing has always been welcomed. If a racer thought he was wronged and then retaliated nobody batted an eye lash.Hopefully now, all that has changed.A 20-year old young man lost his life over the weekend when Kevin Ward Jr., an empire super sprint car driver, felt he was wronged by Tony Stewart at a race at Canadaigua Motorsports Park in New York on Saturday night.Stewart and Ward were racing through a turn when Stewart's car made contact with Ward, sending him into the wall. Ward then exited his wrecked race car and walked down the dimly lit track to voice his unrest with Stewart. He was nearly hit by a car in front of Stewart and then as Stewart rolled by, Ward was hit by Stewart's right rear tire. The accident was fatal.After the incident the race was cancelled and Stewart was questioned and no charges have been filed. The Ontario County Sheriff's office has said that the investigation is ongoing and have asked spectators for video or pictures to aid in the investigation.Ward's death is without a doubt a tragedy and more often than not it takes a tragedy to implement real change. This incident proves that each and every racing organization must have rules about staying in the race car. The fact of the matter is when Ward got out of his car he surrendered all the safety the car and his equipment offered him. Severe penalties should be handed out to anybody that gets out of their car for any reason other than if their safety is threatened by being in the car.A simple solution to the problem is to suspend drivers for a significant amount of time if they get out of their car. If there is one thing a driver hates more than being wrecked it's not even getting the chance to be on the track. If drivers know they won't be able to race for a few weeks if they get out of their car then maybe they won't.The key thing to understand here is that incidents like this happen almost every weekend at some track somewhere. Drivers have most certainly gotten hit in the past.In fact, there was a similar incident at Mahoning Valley Speedway in 2010 during a modified race. Modified driver Tommy Flanagan felt he was wronged by fellow driver Pete Brittain. Flanagan got out of his car, walked down the track and ended up on the front hood of Brittain's car while he was stopped. Brittain sped up with Flanagan on the hood and then stopped suddenly, sending Flanagan rolling down the track. Flanagan appeared to be unharmed, but the situation certainly could've been ugly. Check out the video for yourself (http://youtu.be/GP62m7wGqrg).Mahoning Valley Speedway announcer and public relations manager Dino Oberto has seen racing on all levels. Oberto explained that these type of incidents happen all the time in the racing landscape."I see drivers get out of their car in anger almost on a weekly basis," said Oberto. "It's the nature of the business that we're in. Tension mounts and drivers a lot of the time do not control their emotions. Every racetrack has rules in place that tell drivers to not exit their car unless the situation is safe. It's up to the drivers to adhere to this rule. Obviously, now those rules will be enforced even more after the attention this subject is getting."As Oberto noted, incidents like this happen all the time throughout the racing world. Obviously, this particular incident is getting a lot of attention because of who was involved and of course the tragic death of a promising young driver.Stewart did not compete in yesterday's Sprint Cup race due to the circumstances. and to be honest it could be another week or two before he gets into a race car.The other question that seems to be coming up is if Stewart should be racing sprint cars at all? He was injured almost exactly a year ago in a sprint car race, breaking his leg, which in turn forced him to sit out the rest of the 2013 Sprint Cup season.I think what people have to understand is that Tony Stewart is a racer. He lives to race and he loves to race sprint cars. He owns a sprint car team in the World of Outlaws 410 sprint car series and he often races at dirt tracks that are close to the Sprint Cup venue he is at on a given weekend.He doesn't have a wife, he doesn't have any children. What he has is racing and I would assume that he will continue to race sprint cars and quite frankly I don't see why this incident should stop him. I obviously don't have all the views. I don't have all the facts. All I have is the video that everyone else has seen and from seeing that video I believe this was truly an accident.The loss of life to a young person is always tragic and hopefully this incident can further prevent it from happening in this faction ever again.