CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) – Three-time NASCAR champion Tony Stewart was hospitalized Tuesday with a back injury and Stewart-Haas Racing said the team was unsure of the extent of his injuries just a week before he is expected in Daytona to prepare for his final season in Sprint Cup.
The 44-year-old Stewart was injured Sunday during an accident while he was riding an all-terrain vehicle somewhere on the West Coast, SHR spokesman Mike Arning told The Associated Press. He was being evaluated at an undisclosed hospital and able to move all extremities.
Arning indicated Stewart’s condition will not be updated again until Thursday. Stewart was in Arizona on Saturday night at the Barrett-Jackson auction in Scottsdale and interviewed on live television from the event.
Stewart is retiring at the end of this NASCAR season, and he was due to report next week to Daytona International Speedway to begin preparing for the Feb. 21 Daytona 500.
He turns 45 in May and missed a third of the 2013 season with a broken leg he sustained in a sprint car accident. A year later, his car struck and killed a fellow driver at a dirt track in New York. Stewart was cleared of any criminal wrongdoing, but faces a civil suit from the family of Kevin Ward Jr.