Twenty four hours ago, Tony Stewart was feeling
better than he has in months. Today, that enthusiasm is tempered by an engine
issue that sent his Bass Pro Shops/Mobil One Chevrolet to the garage, trailing
hour from its header pipes.
Stewart was the second of three Hendrick Engines
customers to experience a catastrophic failure in this afternoon’s Sprint Cup
Series practice, joining teammate Danica Patrick and Phoenix Racing driver
Bobby Labonte. Prior to the blow-up, however, the two-time Sprint Cup Series champion
was all smiles.
"I
have zero percent pain in the car,” said Stewart following Friday night
practice for the Sprint Unlimited. “That was nice. We’ll see what it feels like
at 9 o’clock tonight, but so far, so good. (It’s) better than I was hoping
for."
Asking if his forced layoff
from racing was more troublesome than the badly broken leg suffered in an Aug.
5 Sprint Car crash, Stewart said, “No, I don't think so. The pain was the worst part of it, for
sure. That's a level of pain I've never had before. You would think that
having the ability to lay in bed, you get comfortable. But I've never
spent so much time lying in bed feeling uncomfortable in my life.
“I'm
actually more comfortable sitting in a car than I am lying in bed at the end of
the day. Sitting in the race car the last couple weeks getting everything
done, it feels even more comfortable than a street car. If we could
figure out how to take the seat and pedals out of the car and lay it back 40
degrees, I could sleep like a baby for the first time in a long time.”
Stewart said that even before his pain-free run
yesterday, there were no plans to have a backup driver on hand to assist him.
“We're not going to need a backup driver,” he
said. “I feel good enough that I'm confident we're not going to have to worry
about (it). Everybody at our shop, especially the guy that does the
interior on our car, has worked really close together. We've tried to
think of absolutely anything that could be a problem. (There’s nothing) that's
going to take us out of the race car. It's just a matter of making everything
as comfortable as possible.
To
that end, Stewart said teammate Kevin Harvick personally added a new piece of
safety equipment to the No. 14 Chevrolet prior to Speedweeks.
“(He) didn't even ask me,”
revealed Stewart. “He just went and ordered (it). He runs those knee knockers
on the steering column, and he was like, `You're running this.’ He didn't leave
it as an option. I showed up (and) it was on my car. You're running
this. (It) shows what kind of teammates I have and what friends I
have.
“Getting
in and out of the car wasn't as big a drama as I thought,” he said. “That's
what my initial concern was when he told me he was putting (the knee knocker)
in there. But we've been to the shop and worked on getting in and out.
It's pretty fluid now. I don't know how we could be more prepared than what we
are right now. (In a) perfect scenario, everything would be healed 100%
and we wouldn't be talking about it. The bone is about 65% healed right
now, but as far as muscles and everything, the strength is coming much quicker
than I thought it was going to be.”
Stewart
said it will be “probably about another year” before he is 100% healed.
“We're
about 65% right now,” he said. “There are so many gaps in the bone. A
hairline fracture doesn’t have far to grow (to heal), but when you have pieces missing,
it's got to regenerate that bone. When that (bad) weather came through
last night, I knew it an hour before it got here. (My leg is) a
barometer. I've had trouble with migraines before, (so now) I have a
primary and backup system to tell you what the weather is going to do. I
could have predicted within an hour when it was going to snow in
Charlotte.
“With
the titanium rod in there, I have the strength I need. But the actual
physical healing is going to take a little longer.”
What a joke...penalizing a car that has NOT attempted to qualify. Absolute JOKE!
ReplyDeleteYou obviously haven't been following NASCAR for very long, my friend. The policy for DECADES now has been that if you show up with an illegal race car, it was with the intent to race it.
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