LAS VEGAS -- Tony Stewart is anxious to return to his race car, but he’s as much in the dark on the timetable for a comeback as everyone else.
Stewart said he’ll undergo an X-ray on Wednesday for the first time since surgery to repair a broken back last month, which should tell doctors about his progress in healing from a burst fracture of his L1 vertebra suffered in a sand dunes accident.
Photos: Stewart through the years
“We really don’t have any clue how far this has gone since the surgery,” Stewart said Friday during a news conference at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. “I’m probably more eager than anybody to know what the result is.”
Doctors advised the three-time Sprint Cup Series champion not to travel to Las Vegas or Atlanta Motor Speedway last week, but Stewart went anyway because lying in bed “is about to kill me.”
It was important for his mental health to get out of the house and return to the racetrack, he said.
“I would rather be here and be in pain than be at home and be comfortable with no pain,” he said. “The pain is worth it to me. I don’t mind.”
“I don’t know how you can predict when you’re going to be back in the car when they haven’t even done an X-ray since you’ve been operated on,” he said. “If we do something that messes it up or try to do something too soon, it could affect me for the rest of my life.
“We’re not rushing to get back in the car. We’re not going to push that issue.”
Stewart said he hoped NASCAR would grant him a medical waiver for the Chase for the Sprint Cup – much as it did with Kyle Busch last year – but it would depend when he returned from injury.
“The biggest thing I’m worried about is just getting this healed properly,” he said. “It’s just a waiting process right now.”
