Stewart quick to move on after Daytona crash

By Mike Fish, CNNSI.com
February 24, 2001
5:44 PM EST (2244 GMT)

ROCKINGHAM, N.C. -- When he returned to work here, Tony Stewart wasn't in the mood to rehash the horrific crash that sent his car flipping down Daytona International Speedway last weekend.

Stewart was knocked out of the season-opener 26 laps from the checkered flag, his orange No. 20 Home Depot car the main player in a crash that snagged 19 cars.

Tony Stewart is heading back to work quickly after his crash last Sunday at Daytona.

"Last week was last week, and everything that happened over the week is over with," Stewart said after qualifying sixth for the Dura Lube 400. "There is nothing we can do about any of it. We have to go back to what we do.

"The last time I checked, my watch didn't stop. My clocks didn't stop at home. The world didn't stop."

It wasn't his first accident in almost two decades of racing, he said, and won't be his last.

Stewart injured a shoulder while sustaining a concussion in the crash.

It wasn't until Thursday that Stewart's personal physicians cleared his return to racing. NASCAR itself has no standards drivers must meet before racing again.

"The doctors pretty much put me on house arrest," Stewart said. "They made me stay home, lay back and relax before I went to Rockingham. I just got a lot of muscle soreness right now -- lower back and neck.

"Worrying about it isn't going to do me any good. I just got to go out and do my job. The guys are doing everything they can to make me as comfortable in the car as possible."