Prudhomme details how Tony Stewart was found after buggy accident
Former NHRA driver Don Prudhomme estimates that Tony Stewart was alone for 90 minutes after he was injured driving a sand buggy over the weekend.
Stewart is slated to be out for the first part of the NASCAR season after suffering a burst fracture to his L1 vertebra on Sunday. Prudhomme, who was with a group that included Stewart, Jeff Gordon, Rusty Wallace, Ray Evernham, Greg Biffle and others, told NBC’s NASCAR Talk that Stewart had been separated from the group and they realized he was gone when they stopped to talk.
“We were riding these sand rails. We do that quite a bit. We were all together. What really happened is, it isn’t hard to get split off from one another. In other words, if a guy makes a left turn and you’re not watching his flags or there’s dust or something, you can make a right turn and kind of get lost.
“So, we got mixed up and (Stewart) was probably missing for an hour-and-a-half from the pack, at least. He was missing, he was not there. We figured maybe he got hooked up with one of the other guys.
“Then we were stopped and kinda gathered up and started to shoot the s— and asked, ‘Where’s Tony?’ One of the guys (on the dunes) came driving up and said, ‘Hey, one of your buddies is hurt over on the other side of the hill.’
“There was about three of us who went back on our buggies and we came upon him. He was laying there. He got out of it (the sand buggy) and was laying there in the sand on his back.”
Prudhomme’s account of the day is fascinating and worth a read. He said Evernham, Gordon’s former crew chief, took charge and escorted Stewart to the hospital. He was taken to the hospital by a private helicopter owned by Ron Pratte, a car collector.
The four-time Funny Car champion said Stewart didn’t flip the buggy he was driving. Rather the car landed so hard after catching air that the impact caused the fracture. He also noted the vehicles can get up to 110 MPH.
“(Stewart) wasn’t driving reckless or crazy or anything else,” Prudhomme said. “He just happened to hit this (sand) ramp and the way it came down, and it was a lot taller or higher up than he probably realized. And it came down and crashed. We went back to get the car he was driving after he got into the helicopter and just fired that baby up and drove it back to the ranch.
“It wasn’t like it flipped over. I’ve heard people say it flipped over. No, it didn’t flip over, it just came down so hard that it messed his back up.”
It’s the second major injury Stewart has suffered in the past 2.5 years. He broke his right leg in August 2013 in a sprint car accident in Iowa. That injury caused him to miss the final 15 races of the season.
A replacement for Stewart in the No. 14 car hasn’t been identified. According to Dale Jarrett, a friend of Stewart’s, people at Stewart-Haas Racing believe it’s likely Stewart could be sidelined for a minimum of three months.
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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!
