Jarrett: Team expecting Tony Stewart out likely 3 months or more
Former Sprint Cup Series champion and NBC analyst Dale Jarrett said Thursday that Stewart-Haas Racing believes Tony Stewart will likely be sidelined from racing at least three months and could be out as many as six months.
Jarrett made the comments while discussing Stewart’s back injury on NASCAR America. Stewart was injured Sunday in a sand buggy accident in Arizona. Stewart-Haas Racing has officially said Stewart will be out indefinitely and miss the beginning of the 2016 season, though he will return to the car during the season.
“It’s an unfortunate situation, but I can tell you with my conversations with people from Stewart-Haas … the decisions were made not about getting Tony Stewart back in the race car as soon as they possibly could this year, it was about the quality of life 5, 10, 20 years down the road,” Jarrett said. “That’s what they wanted the most for Tony Stewart was to have a great life after all of this is said and done.”
“So that’s the decision they made, the surgery they decided to go with, all that was based upon those facts, not getting Tony back in as quickly as they possibly could. They know they’re looking at probably a minimum of three months before he’s going to be anywhere close to getting back. Could be as much as six. But Tony — is kind of upbeat, he understands these things have happened, he’s ready to carry on.”
Stewart suffered a burst fracture of his L1 vertebra. For a great description of a burst fracture, here’s a NASCAR America segment with former Jacksonville Jaguars head trainer Mike Ryan.
[Related: How Tony Stewart has done in his 17 winless Daytona 500 starts]
If Stewart, who is set to retire at the end of the season, is out three months, he would miss nine races if he comes back May 1 at Talladega. If he misses six months, a return at the beginning of August would mean a 21-race absence. The race at Watkins Glen on Aug. 7 is the 22nd race of the season.
2015 Cup champion Kyle Busch missed the first 11 races of last season with the injuries he suffered in an Xfinity Series crash at Daytona. He qualified for the Chase by winning a race (well, four of them) before the 26-race cutoff and made the top 30 in points by the Glen, his 11th race of the season.
It’s likely Stewart would need more than 11 races to make the top 30 in points, provided he gets a win to make the Chase. While Busch had finishes of 36th and 43rd in those first 11 races back, he also had four wins and a second.
Stewart had three top-10 finishes in 2015.
The three-time Cup champion would also need to get a waiver from NASCAR that grants him Chase eligibility despite not attempting every race. Given that NASCAR gave Busch a waiver and has not denied a waiver in the two years of the current Chase format. Any exemption is likely a formality.
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Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
