By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor
According to a report from the AP’s Jenna Fryer, three-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion, Tony Stewart Was hospitalized on Tuesday with a back injury.
According to the report, Stewart is able to move all extremities and the incident occurred Sunday while riding an all-terrain vehicle (ATV) in a non-racing accident.
What impact this will have on Stewart’s status for the Daytona 500 remains to be seen. According to the report, Stewart’s representative Mike Arning said more about Stewart’s health will be revealed on Thursday.
Stewart is entering the final year of his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series career, and he has struggled through injuries and hardships away from the NASCAR track in recent years. During Media Tour, Stewart seemed excited and ready to get into Daytona.
Stewart is of course one of the all-time greats in the history of the sport. The Indiana-native has racked up 48 victories over the last 17 years in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, and he is the co-owner of the team he drives for, Stewart-Haas Racing. The team also fields NASCAR Sprint Cup Series cars for Kevin Harvick, Danica Patrick and Kurt Busch.
Before moving to NASCAR, Stewart was a standout in the Indy Racing League, where he won the championship in 1997.
Stewart recently announced that after his retirement from NASCAR, he will actively drive at local short tracks.
Stewart broke his leg in a short track crash in 2013, which resulted in him missing the final 15 Sprint Cup Series races that year. In 2014 Stewart again missed several NASCAR races while dealing with the aftermath of a tragic incident at another local short track. In that accident Stewart’s car struck and killed Kevin Ward Jr. After a long legal battle, Stewart’s name was cleared of any wrongdoing.
Image: Sean Gardner/NASCAR via Getty Images
