Tony Stewart and the family of Kevin Ward Jr. have reached a settlement in court after the wrongful death lawsuit filed against the three-time Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion in 2015.
According to ESPN, a settlement hearing has been set for April 12 in Utica, N.Y., by U.S. District Court Judge David Hurd, just a month before a trial was set to begin that would have led a jury to decide whether Stewart was at fault in the Aug. 9, 2014, death of Ward at Canandaigua Motorsports Park after Stewart’s car impacted with Ward on the track.
Neither Stewart nor the Wards have made a public statement about the settlement as of the morning of April 3.
Ward had walked into Stewart’s path to express his displeasure with the Cup champion in the Empire Super Sprints race. Ward’s parents alleged that Stewart was attempting to intimidate their son by swerving toward him while he confronted him, thus setting off the contact that eventually ended Ward’s life. Ward had marijuana in his system at the time of the accident.
A grand jury had earlier failed to indict Stewart with criminally negligible homicide and second-degree manslaughter.
The damages sought by the Ward family in the lawsuit had not been revealed.
Kevin Rutherford is the executive editor of Frontstretch, a position he gained in 2025 after being the managing editor since 2015, and serving on the editing staff since 2013.
At his day job, he's a journalist covering music and rock charts at Billboard. He lives in New York City, but his heart is in Ohio -- you know, like that Hawthorne Heights song.