FORT WORTH -- Looking fit and exhibiting a healthy dose of humor with his humility, NASCAR champion Tony Stewart accepted Texas Motor Speedway's award for his charitable contributions to the Texas chapter of the Speedway Children's Charities organization Thursday night in the track's grand banquet room overlooking the speedway.
After a brief introduction by TMS President Eddie Gossage at the annual Texas Motorsports Hall of Fame dinner, Stewart accepted the Major General Thomas Sadler Award for his work with "The Smoke Show" and engaged the audience with a speech filled with gratitude and lots of opportunity to smile. The three-time Cup champ looked good and sounded like the Stewart this sport has come to love.
The timing of Stewart's return to the drivers seat of his No. 14 Chevrolet, however, remains unknown, he said. He suffered a serious back injury in an all-terrain vehicle accident just prior to the start of the season and has been out of the driver's seat recovering.
"We won't know anything until the end of the month when we go get scanned again," Stewart said. "Unfortunately, it's a lot of waiting right now, which is about to drive me crazy.
"Tomorrow, in my heart [I could be back], but the reality is I'm 45 and I don't know how fast my bones are healing. It's not like you go in there every week and get scanned and [get] an update. The hard part is literally waiting until we get scanned and they'll have a better idea when we can get back in. In the meantime, you're just waiting.
"I feel confident that when they say I'm ready, I will be ready."
Stewart spent much of the night signing autographs and posing for photographs with attendees.
This year's Hall of Fame ceremony inducted the inaugural TMS Cup race winner, Jeff Burton, who was in the audience along with fellow honorees Martin Truex Jr. and Erik Jones. Also in attendance was Clint Bowyer, who introduced Burton and who also will take over Stewart's No. 14 next season.
Stewart made it clear in his speech that he looked forward to being back in the car competing alongside those active drivers. He has been doing rehabilitation work for his back injury, and also spoke privately Thursday about what looked like a successful effort to cut some weight, as well.
The result, he said, was that he's ahead of the rehabilitation schedule the doctors have given him, and now it is truly a waiting game for medical clearance.
"I've not been a good patient," Stewart said, smiling. "I went to therapy Monday -- I was cleared for it two weeks ago -- but I went home and did stuff on the property and figured that was therapy.
"Rehab's been fun because I actually got complimented for doing things I'm not supposed to do. I said, 'Where do you think we're at?' And he (the therapist) said, 'Well, because you've done everything we've asked you not to do, you're not going to be spending too much time in therapy.'
"That was probably one of the few times that I've ever been complimented on doing things I wasn't supposed to do."
Stewart-Haas Racing driver Kevin Harvick, who landed the team a Sprint Cup championship in 2014 and contended for another last year, said he's impressed with all Stewart has done out of the race car to help the team progress. He said Stewart takes a very proactive role.
"He's on the radios, he's in the meetings," Harvick said Thursday. "He's around and he's just very engaged in what's going on and not in the car.
"As you look in the future, he's calling on the phone wanting to know what we need to do differently to get better. As you look at all those things, those are what you want. You want a competition guy, a driver and him being the owner is definitely something that you want that engagement with.
"His engagement is different than normal owners because he knows so much about the sport and how it works from inside the car."
Ironically, this man whose made a living with speed spoke about the need to take this recovery slowly and properly. He has been measured and thoughtful in getting back to a competitive level.
"Breaking a leg or an arm is a lot different than when you have something going on in your back because that is your core, [and it] is important to make sure it gets healed right," Stewart said. "This is important to make sure it heals right, but it hasn't stopped me from pushing the envelope here and there just to see where I'm at.
"If I get sore at the end of the day, I'm very good about it. I think breaking [my] leg and going through that cycle (in 2013), I learned to just listen to my body and when it's telling you it's had enough, then OK, stop.
"The doctor has to go to NASCAR to clear me, so there's no point in going through the agony (of questioning) when it's still in their hands. It's literally about doing what they tell you to do and when they say it's time to go, it's time to go."