Tony Stewart’s rising popularity made him the perfect candidate for a NASCAR x Winter Olympics advertisement in 2002. The promotional clip felt unusual at the time, but not particularly unsettling. That changed about twelve years later, when Stewart was involved in an incident that shook the racing world, and the similarity to the 2002 ad is hard to ignore.

What made the 2002 ad so sinister after almost 12 years?

The advertisement from 2002 was like any other NASCAR promo at the time. Experimental, funny, and eye-catching. It showed Stewart thinking about taking his racing car down a snowy hill meant for skiing, representing the Winter Olympics. Shortly afterwards, in the promo, he can be seen hitting a skier from his car, following which he decides not to go for it. While this was rather funny at the time, this narrative changed in 2014.

Competing in a sprint race at Canandaigua Motorsports Park, Tony Stewart made contact with Kevin Ward Jr, who was only 20 at the time. This caused Ward Jr to lose control and spin out, ending his race.

Angry, he stepped out of his car and went into the middle of the race track, seemingly to stop Tony Stewart. However, the latter’s car ended up hitting Ward Jr, who lost his life because of intense blunt trauma. This shook the racing world, especially Stewart, who later wrote:

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“There aren’t words to describe the sadness I feel about the accident that took the life of Kevin Ward Jr. It’s a very emotional time for all involved, and it is the reason I’ve decided not to participate in today’s race at Watkins Glen. My thoughts and prayers are with his family, friends, and everyone affected by this tragedy.”

Rules regarding stepping out of the car after a crash were changed. Reforms were made, but nothing changed the fact that a driver had lost his life on the track. Considering how it happened, witnessing the 2002 advertisement now paints a different picture.

Fans react to Tony Stewart’s advertisement

“This one probably isn’t great for optics anymore,” wrote a fan, drawing a comparison to the 2014 tragedy. It is hard to miss.

Even if many of the modern fans had not watched the ad at the time, they are now getting to know about it. Knowing all the facts of the incident that happened on that day in 2014, many can notice what is so sinister about the little promo.

“That’s some pretty insane foreshadowing,” another fan wrote. “Spoke it into existence,” read another comment, hinting towards how the ad was so close to what would happen a decade later.

Yet, the advertisement had its charm. It reflected the raw racing sentiment that stock car racing carried at the time. Tony Stewart would win his first Cup Series championship that season and make himself one of the greatest to have ever stepped into the sport. 

Still, there were some mistakes in the ad, which only the most die-hard fans could spot. “So it is a Pontiac from the front and a Chevrolet from the side. Lol. And yeah, yikes!”

Some also commented on the little humor that the promo carried, of course, unaware of what would take place years later: “Nascar commercials was hilarious [b]ack in the early 2000s.”

It wasn’t an easy time for Stewart after the 2014 incident. He faced mental trauma, calling it one of the “toughest tragedies” of his life. He missed the following Cup Series race that year, and understandably, it took him quite some time to recover from the tragedy.