What occurred this past Saturday night at Canandaigua (NY) Motorsports Park involving the death of 20 year old USAC Dirt Sprint Car driver Kevin Ward, Jr., and one of NASCAR’s most admired and dynamic personalities, three-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Champion, Tony Stewart, is a tragedy. It’s truly a sad state of affairs this week for the family of the racer who was fatally stuck, for Tony Stewart, and for the sport of auto racing in general. In short, the past 72 hours have been a horrible nightmare for all involved.

Stewart, 43, is a pitchman’s dream. He’s appeared in multi-million dollar ad campaigns for products including Mobil 1, Coca-Cola, and Old Spice over the years, and possesses a personality and swagger that is both a writer’s worst fear and greatest asset in the interview room. Stewart, who in addition to driving in NASCAR’s premier division, the Sprint Cup Series, also co-owns one of NASCAR’s most powerful and growing teams, Stewart-Haas Racing.

Together with Gene Haas, owner of Haas Automation, Tony Stewart fields four Sprint Cup teams: Danica Patrick, sponsored by Go Daddy, Kevin Harvick, sponsored by Budweiser and Jimmy John’s, and the famed 41 car of Kurt Busch, sponsored by Haas Automation. All these sponsors, including Stewart’s (Mobil 1, Rush Truck Centers and Bass Pro Shops), are giants in their industries. Blue chip brands that pride themselves on building and fostering positive brand association and creating vibrant brand advocacy with NASCAR fans and general consumers alike.

So the question that many in the PR world are asking is: will the sponsors suffer as a result of Saturday’s incident? Will we see sponsors shy away from being associated with Stewart?

Respected NASCAR writer for USA Today, Nate Ryan, says yes. Ryan interviewed former NASCAR Communications VP, and current PR executive, Ramsey Poston to get his take on the PR impact of the Tony Stewart tragedy and what’s at stake for Stewart-Haas Racing and its sponsors.

“The facts here are critically important. Tony Stewart and SHR should limit what they say publicly to the facts and only the facts as they continue to cooperate with law enforcement. Speculation on behalf of fans, media and others as to what might have happened and why can quickly take over the public dialogue and incorrectly frame the matter, which is why SHR needs to continue to steer any further comments to the established facts that are known.”

What is truly at stake is millions of dollars—upwards of $20 to $30 million per season—for sponsorship of Tony Stewart. That doesn’t include Stewart’s long-time personal endorsements with brands like Oakley Sunglasses or Coca-Cola that fans have become accustomed to seeing the driver aligned with.

In addition to the potential direct sponsor fallout on the racing side, Stewart also owns a myriad of other businesses related to motorsports, including a PR firm, racing venues, his own United States Auto Club, and the Tony Stewart Foundation which benefits  “children diagnosed with critical or chronic illness, animals, and for drivers injured in the sport of motor racing” according to the foundation’s website.

Thus far comments directly from the Stewart-Haas Racing organization have been kept short and direct, out of respect to both the family of Ward, Jr., Stewart, and the officials investigating the incident. This has been the right move, and I’m sure a carefully crafted one at that. It would not surprise me if contact has already been made between Stewart’s reps and the sponsors for the race team on the incident as well.

As far as racing goes, initially SHR said Stewart was ready to go and it was “business as usual” for Sunday’s Sprint Cup race, but that was later changed. There has been some talk if this was a PR move by Stewart’s camp to, at least temporarily, remove Stewart from the sponsors and the 14 car, or if Stewart was just so mentally shaken from the entire ordeal that he would not be able to perform at the level necessary to safely and competitively race on Sunday.

No matter what happens, this is a very unfortunate situation that is marred with abject misrepresentation by mainstream media of both what occurred, of Tony Stewart as a driver and a person, and even at times the sport of NASCAR racing. What will transpire in the days and weeks to come will be truly defining of Stewart and perhaps even the longevity of his career. There is no question that this is a giant PR mess, which is sad on so many levels, and at the end of the day will undoubtedly have an impact on dollars and cents from a sponsorship and marketing stance.