NASCAR driver Tony Stewart was severely injured in a multi-car wreck on Monday night. The three-time NASCAR champion was hospitalized after the accident and rushed into surgery to repair a broken leg.
Stewart was moonlighting at a sprint car race in Iowa Monday night, when a lapped driver lost control of his car taking the three lead cars out with him. Stewart was only five laps away from a first place finish at the time of the wreck.
Racer Brian Brown ended up in first place after the whole scene played out. Brown told the Des Moines Register:
"It looked like he got into a lapped car. When I got close, he was flipping his 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 alright. 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."
Stewart suffered a broken tibia and fibula in his right leg. There is no word on just long Stewart will be out of action but injuries like this typically take around 12 weeks to heal.
Tony is likely to miss the next few races and that could unfortunately knock the 11th place driver out of the standings for the upcoming Chase for the Cup.
This is Stewart's third sprint car wreck in as many weeks. One wreck caused by Stewart on July 16, left 19-year-old driver, Alysha Ruggles with a broken back.
Sprint car or short track racing has a bad reputation for being what many critics consider highly unsafe. Stewart himself defended the sport last week in response to yet another wreck:
"You mortals have got to learn, you guys need to watch more sprint car videos and stuff. It was not a big deal. It's starting to get annoying this week about that. That was just an average sprint car wreck. When they wreck, they get upside down like that.”
He was also on the defense again after fellow driver Jason Leffler passed away in tragic accident in June, telling the press:
"I'd be grateful if you guys would understand that what happened this week wasn't because somebody didn't do something right with the racetrack. It was an accident. Just like if you go out and there's a car crash. It's an accident, Nobody as a track owner wants to go through what happened, but it's not due to a lack of effort on their part to try to make their facilities as safe as possible under the conditions they have."
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