Tony Stewart cleared to race in Daytona

Fox Sports 1’s Tom Jensen tweeted a couple days ago that Tony Stewart has been officially cleared to race at Daytona this February, beginning with practice for the Sprint Unlimited.

Midway through last year, Tony Stewart suffered a bad crash while midget racing, resulting in a broken leg. Stewart has been working through the injury, doing rehab, with the destination to be behind the wheel of his racecar come February.

“I still have a little ways to go, but we’ve got four weeks to get ready the rest of the way,” Stewart commented earlier this month during Preseason Thunder. “Even when we get here in February, it’s not going to be 100 percent.  Physically I’m not going to feel 100 percent, but I’ll be able to do my job 100 percent, so that’s the main thing.”

For Stewart, he feels that his stamina is where it is supposed to be as he has been helping the team get ready and attending therapy.

“Occasionally you’ll sit down and get a break, but no more than anybody else would,” he said. “But I haven’t been just sitting the whole time I’ve been home.  I’ve actually been down and working and trying to make sure that we don’t go backwards by not continuing our therapy.  I actually go back to therapy Friday night when we get back from the test.  We’re actually going in late to do a therapy session.”

Stewart added then that he would be ready for Daytona and wasn’t too worried as it’s a smooth track. However, there is concern with how his leg will feel due to the fact of how long you have to hold the gas pedal down and not moving the leg a lot.

“That’s the only thing we’re worried about right now just because we just don’t know until we get in a car and actually run, and we’re not going to know that until the day before,” he added. “We’ll get a little bit of time in there, but we’ll know a little better after practice is over.”