After waiting nearly seven months to get back in his #14 Mobil 1/Bass Pro Shops Chevy and race, Tony Stewart didn’t waste any time getting racy in the Sprint Unlimited Saturday night at Daytona. Stewart, who broke his right leg in a sprint car crash on Aug. 5, 2013, waited only five laps before ducking to the inside lane to see how his car would react in the draft. For the next 30 laps, Stewart ebbed and flowed with the draft, dropping to as low as 17th before running as high as third. But on lap 35, a multicar crash consumed Stewart and six other drivers, three of whom were his Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) teammates – #4-Kevin Harvick, #41-Kurt Busch and #10-Danica Patrick. Only Harvick was able to continue in the race. For Stewart, Busch and Patrick, their race was over, with each one of their racecars a crumpled mess. All were evaluated and released from the infield care center.
‘From the replay, I don’t know whether the #20 (Matt Kenseth) came down or the #22 (Joey Logano) got into him. You’ve just got to protect your spot,’ Stewart said after walking out of the infield care center. ‘I’ve always said I’m not a big fan of blocking, but unfortunately it’s what you have to do here. It seemed like tonight it was a little easier to get stalled out, so if you got track position, you had to protect it. We just needed a couple more inches here and there and we would’ve gotten out of that. We hate to have that happen.’ Moments after the accident, many were uneasy for fear the impact may have reinjured Stewart’s leg.
‘I was a little nervous about it because I knew we were going to hit nose-first, but it doesn’t feel bad at all,’ Stewart said. ‘It doesn’t have any pain. We’ll see when the adrenalin wears off here in about an hour, but so far it feels good.’(SHR)(2-16-2014)
