Stewart injured as 12 cars crash late in race

DARLINGTON, S.C. -- For the second time in one day, a crash with lap traffic took out out the leader of the race.

Tony Stewart had worked his way up from 36th place in the No. 20 Home Depot Pontiac to take the lead from Jeff Gordon. Less than 10 laps later, Stewart’s day was done after making contact with the swerving lap car of Buckshot Jones in Turn 2 on lap 226.

Stewart was taken by stretcher from the car to the infield care center where he was then transported via helicopter to Carolina Medical Systems in Florence, S.C. He was conscious but complaining of pain in his lower back, numbness and tingling in the left foot.

He underwent a CT scan of the head, back and abdomen and all tests were negative, according to Dr. Tony Curry. Stewart was admitted for overnight observation as he was still experiencing lower back tenderness. Stewart was released in good condition from the hospital on Monday morning after undergoing an early morning MRI. All tests came back negative.

Greg Ziapadelli, crew chief for Stewart, had a chance to talk with Stewart after the accident.

"He has lower back and stomach pains," Zipadelli said. "He's awake and all, they're just going to fly him to the hospital to check things out."

			Tony Stewart

The wreck occurred as Stewart went to go low around Jones, who appeared to veer down the track just as Stewart was trying to pass him. Jones' loose car unexpectedly came in front of Stewart's line, slamming Stewart into the rear of Jones' car and sending him to the outside wall of Turn 2. Heavily damaged, Stewart's car drifted down the track and was almost stopped when Jimmy Spencer in the No. 41 Dodge piled into Stewart's right-front side.

Spencer was then struck by Ken Schrader in the No. 36 Pontiac as all three cars came to rest along the retaining wall.

"We all tried to slow up as best we could," Spencer said. "That track is so narrow right there that there's no room right there. A lap car got into the leader trying to stay on that lead lap, I guess.

"Unfortunately, we got involved in that and so did a lot of other good cars."

Eight other cars, many running in the top 10, were involved including Ward Burton, Mark Martin, Kurt Busch, Dave Blaney, Johnny Benson, Bobby Labonte and Jeff Gordon, who was running second but stayed on the track with right-front grill damage.

Schrader said he just saw a lot of smoke when he exited Turn 2 and got into Spencer and Stewart.

"There was a lot of smoke," Schrader said after exiting the care center. "I just saw a replay and all I know is something happened between the No. 44 and No. 22 cars.

"I couldn't tell how it got started."