Tony Stewart Breaks Leg in Crash

06 Aug, 2013

Three-time NASCAR champion Tony Stewart will miss this weekend’s road course race at Watkins Glen after breaking his right leg in a sprint car race Monday night at Southern Iowa Speedway.

A spokesman for Stewart said the 42-year-old driver broke his right tibia and fibula and had surgery after he was transported to a local hospital. An update was expected Tuesday afternoon, and Stewart-Haas Racing did not immediately announce a replacement driver for Stewart’s No. 14 Chevrolet at Watkins Glen, where Stewart is a five-time winner.

The team did cancel its scheduled Tuesday test at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

The sprint car accident came a day after Stewart finished ninth in the NASCAR race at Pocono Raceway. He’s 11th in the Sprint Cup standings with five races to go until the Chase for the championship field is set.

Stewart was leading the 30-lap feature in a 360 winged sprint car with five laps remaining when a lapped car spun in Turn 4 and collected Stewart and two others.

Race winner Brian Brown told the Des Moines Register he saw the accident in front of him, turned left, hit an infield tire and kept going.

“It looked like he got into a lapped car,” Brown told The Register. “When I got close, he was flipping cage down. I didn’t really have time to watch and see what was going on.

“First and foremost, we’re concerned about Tony and making sure he’s all right. He’s a huge asset to our sport, especially sprint car racing and an icon in the whole motorsports field. Anytime you see him wreck like that and then leave in an ambulance, it’s never good. Hopefully he’s OK. We weren’t going to win that race. We were probably going to run third or fourth.”

It’s the third time Stewart has wrecked in the last month while competing in extracurricular races.

 AP

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