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Tony Stewart had plans of having an exciting final season of Sprint Cup Series competition. However, that was all changed following a dune buggy incident.
About a month ago, Stewart suffered a burst fracture of the L1 vertebrae following an accident in San Diego. Stewart returned to North Carolina in the days following, where he underwent surgery.
The three-time Sprint Cup Series Champion has yet to hear any updates from the doctors, as the first x-ray since surgery is set to occur next Wednesday. For now, the focus for him has been “chilling out”, either by lying in bed or walking as the doctors don’t want him sitting or standing.
Despite these rules in place, Stewart made his way out to Las Vegas Motor Speedway this weekend to support his team as he laying in bed wasn’t in option any longer.
“It’s good for me. I think it’s good for our team more than anything,” he said. “I want to be here to support them. I want them to know that even though I’ve kind of put them in a box again, that I’m going to be here and I’m going to be supportive. That’s a big deal to me, to be here and let those guys know I’m behind them 100%. I want to be at the track. That’s where I always want to be. That’s a big deal to me.”
Stewart has yet to start rehab, as he is waiting for the doctors to clear him to do so. When the time is right, he says he’ll be ready for it, just as he was when he went through rehab for his leg injury.
“We’ve been through enough pain tolerance with the leg and this, I don’t think it’s a big drama,” he said. “It’s very similar. I mean, like I said, your body tells you when it’s had enough for the day. It’s just paying attention to it. When you start feeling like you’re getting sore, that’s a good sign that it’s time to get off your back. Even if I lay down for 10 minutes, it’s like it recharges the battery and kind of makes it feel good enough to get going again.
“When it gets time to get back in the car, we’ll be plenty ready. I’ve been driving a street car for two and a half weeks now, it doesn’t bother me, I just can’t do it for long periods of time.
Curiosity remains as to when Stewart will return back behind the wheel of a racecar, and whether NASCAR will grant him a Chase waiver like they did Kyle Busch a year ago. The waiver would allow Stewart to scratch the rule of having to run each event, but he’d still have to win a race and be in the top-30 in points to qualify for the Chase for the Sprint Cup. He states when he does return that he’ll run as strong as he can, but his number one concern right now is becoming healed properly.
“That’s my biggest concern, is just making sure that it heals right. I’m anxious to get x-rayed next week because I’m very curious about what the progress has been like for the last 30 days,” he said. “We’ll wait and see. But, you know, it’s just a waiting process right now. Honestly, like I said, the biggest concern is just making sure it heals right the first time.”
There were thoughts that possibly the injury changes the plans for Stewart, and he may come back to run more races beyond this season. However, Stewart says that is not the case as he isn’t changing the plan due to getting hurt.
“These are the cards we were dealt,” he commented. “It was a weird accident that nobody ever thought would happen. I mean, I can’t even make the story about how I got hurt, I can’t even make it sound cool. I mean, I got hurt driving five miles an hour. That’s hard to make sound cool.
“I wish I could tell you the story of I was jumping a 50-foot gap, running 60 miles an hour, it flipped over, caught on fire, and I broke my back. That’s not what happened. I went over the lip of a dune, went down 20, 25 feet, landed like a lawn dart. It broke my back. It’s hard to make that sound cool, but that’s just what it is.
“That’s the cards we’re dealt. We’ll play the rest of the year out. As soon as they tell me I can be back in the car, I’m going to be wide-open, 100%. I’m not going to leave anything on the table each race. It’s get everything I can get. At the end of the year we got what we got. I’ll go on with the rest of it afterwards.”
Despite no Sprint Cup Series races beyond this year, he still plans to run other events, such as the truck race at Eldora Raceway and some modified races at Loudon, New Hampshire.
