LAS VEGAS — Two-time NASCAR champion Tony Stewart bruised his foot, but was otherwise fine following a frightening crash Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
“I was kind of worried, my legs, my entire legs from my hips down were just tingling,” Stewart said. “And I had pain in my lower back and that kind of scared me a little bit. I’ve not had my legs tingle like that before.
“I was kind of worried about, ‘What’s going on here?’”
Stewart wrecked 108 laps into the race when the right front tire on his Toyota failed. It sent the car hard into the wall, and he immediately called for help.
“I’m hurt,” he radioed his team before slowly climbing from the car. He gingerly walked with the assistance of two emergency personnel into a waiting car that took him to the infield care center.
Stewart bruised his right foot in a hard accident in the Nationwide Series race on Saturday, and said following the Sprint Cup wreck he hit his foot in the second wreck.
“I just hit a spot that was already tender and sore,” he said. “It’s the inside of my foot, just hit it off the pedal and bruised it a little bit. But today’s hit was probably 10 times harder.”
The tingling in his legs frightened the veteran, but he said the sensation had improved by the time he was cleared to leave the care center.
“My legs were tingling, they were about half-numb, and my lower back is sore and that’s probably from tensing up before I hit the wall,” he said. “When you see the hit coming and you know you’re not going to miss it, every muscle in your body tenses up.”
Stewart said he planned to participate in the Cup test scheduled for Monday and Tuesday in Phoenix, and he’d be fine to race next weekend in Atlanta.
“It’s going to be a miserable next two days,” he said. “I was already sore. We’ll do what we’ve got to do the next two days.”
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