NASCAR Cup Series

One year later, Tony Stewart ruminates on sprint car tragedy

Published Aug. 7, 2015 11:47 a.m. ET

Jared Turner

Two years ago, on Aug. 5, Tony Stewart broke both bones in his lower right leg in a sprint-car crash at Southern Iowa Speedway, a half-mile dirt oval in Oskaloosa, Iowa.

He missed the final 15 races of the Sprint Cup Series season while recovering from the injuries and undergoing multiple surgeries.

One year ago, on Aug. 9, Stewart's world was rocked even more by his role in the tragic incident that claimed the life of 20-year-old driver Kevin Ward Jr. in a sprint car race at Canandaigua Motorsports Park, a half-mile dirt track in upstate New York.

Grief-stricken and emotionally shaken, Stewart was scheduled to compete in the next day's Sprint Cup Series race at Watkins Glen International, but sat out that event and the next two Sprint Cup Series events before returning to competition at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Labor Day weekend.

Four weeks after getting back in a Sprint Cup Series car, Stewart was cleared by a grand jury of any criminal wrongdoing in the incident with Ward, who suffered fatal injuries after getting out of his sprint car, walking down the track while gesturing at Stewart, and being unintentionally clipped by the right-rear wheel of Stewart's car and thrown into the air. An autopsy report later revealed marijuana in Ward's system at the time of his death. Friday, nearly a year after the incident, Ward's family filed for a wrongful death lawsuit against Stewart.

"I don't think I'll ever be the same from what happened the last two years. I don't know how you could be," Stewart, a three-time Sprint Cup Series champion, said during a promotional stop on Wednesday at Texas Motor Speedway. "I don't know how anybody ever could be back to exactly the way they were. But not being back exactly the same as I was doesn't mean I (haven't) become better in some ways. I think there's always positives that come out of every scenario."

Set to compete this weekend at Watkins Glen after missing the road-course race the past two years, Stewart doesn't want to let his mind be consumed with reflections of last year's tragedy.

"I'm trying to not think about it," he told a group of reporters at the Texas event. "You guys are the first ones to bring it up this week. Unfortunately, I have a feeling it's going to get brought up a lot this week, but it doesn't help you continue to move forward with it."

Despite his struggles this season in the Sprint Cup Series, where he's 25th in points and has just two top-10 finishes in 21 starts, Stewart is seeing some hopeful signs.

Two weekends ago at Indianapolis, the Stewart-Haas Racing co-owner/driver struggled to a 28th-place finish in the Brickyard 400 but qualified a strong fourth.

Last weekend at Pocono, Stewart qualified fifth and finished ninth -- his best result since coming home sixth at Bristol on April 19.

Stewart isn't ready yet to declare that his No. 14 team has turned a corner, however.

"Two weeks of qualifying good really doesn't change anything," Stewart said. "I shouldn't say it doesn't change anything. We ran decent last week and I think that was a positive sign, but . . . moving the needle a week or two weeks, that's a good thing to do it two weeks in a row, but I don't know if that means we've got it all figured out yet.

"I think it's just too early to tell. I'm not sure that two weeks really gives me a definite answer on that right now."

Knowing that two of his SHR teammates -- Kevin Harvick and Kurt Busch -- have been consistently fast this year and locked up berths in the Chase for the Sprint Cup with two wins apiece does little to ease Stewart's frustrations about his own situation. Danica Patrick, the other driver in SHR's four-car stable, has also lacked the pace of Harvick and Busch.

"The whole season's been frustrating," Stewart said. "It's kind of been a double-edged sword because you've got two of your drivers that are running really well each week, and then two of us that aren't where we want to be yet. On one side it's encouraging because you know that the organization's capable. The other side of the coin is you're frustrated because you can't figure it out yourself."