#14- Tony Stewart, met with members of the media at Daytona International Speedway following the first practice session for Saturday’s Sprint Unlimited. Stewart discussed how he felt in the car as he climbed behind the wheel for the first time following his accident last season, the transcript in part:
Q) HOW DID IT FEEL?
Stewart: ‘It felt good. The great thing is there is zero percentage of pain in the car. That was nice. We will see what it feels like at 9 o’clock tonight, but so far so good. That is better than I was hoping for, honestly. I thought we would have some kind of ache, pain of some kind that would bother us. It was like putting on an old pair of shoes again.’
Q) IS IT A RELIEF OR ARE YOU JUST OVERJOYED?
Stewart: ‘Well a little of both. I think once we got the relief of knowing we weren’t hurting anywhere then it was just joy of being back out there again. It didn’t feel like I had been gone seven months when we started running. It was today though, every five minutes I was looking at the clock from 3 o’clock on going ‘is it 4:30 yet’ because I wanted to get dressed at 4:30 and come in. That is a long time to be staring at the clock for an hour and a half. That is small compared to the seven months.’
Q) DID YOU HAVE ANY THERAPY TODAY OR ANY SPECIAL STRETCHES OR ANYTHING? OR IS IT JUST LIKE A NORMAL PRACTICE DAY?
Stewart: ‘Knowing you are my back-up guy (referring to an inside joke with reporter Bob Pockrass) I didn’t do anything extra. I felt like my back-up guy is on par and ready to go. No, I didn’t do anything today.’
Q) HOW ABOUT GETTING IN AND OUT OF THE CAR?
Stewart: ‘Piece of cake. I didn’t fall. I think that was what everybody was waiting for. If there was ever a time to not screw up it is getting in the car this time. About 400 cameras there so I didn’t want to be the guy that fell out of the car and got on the cover of the paper for that.’(Team Chevy)(2-15-2014)
