NASCAR Dover 2014: Tony Stewart won’t divulge details on sprint car return

Tony Stewart returned to the seat of a sprint car in a test Monday and he plans on racing again, but when and where exactly he refuses to say.

“I will be able to tell you how (the race) went, let’s put it that way,” Stewart said Friday at Dover International Speedway. “You won’t know when it’s coming. When I do go nobody is going to know about it. I’m going to just slide in and do it. I want to enjoy it.

“I don’t want it to be a cluster. Judging off the fact of how many people showed up just to talk to me about going and testing for a couple of hours I can imagine what the group is going to be like after I run my first race.”

Standing in front of his No. 14 hauler before a horde of media in the Dover garage, Stewart was dumbfounded that driving a sprint car carried such significance.

That media presence is why Stewart explained his eventual return to racing will be kept a secret. He simply doesn’t want the attention nor to be bothered.

“I am laughing at you guys because it’s like my God I went and tested a sprint car,” Stewart said. “I still laugh about how big a deal this has all been made. We had Cup drivers get hurt last year and nobody said anything. It was all minor news. I’ve made more news by getting hurt in a dirt car than any of these guys.”

When Stewart does compete in a sprint car race it will be the first time since breaking his right leg in two places in a crash Aug. 5 at Southern Iowa Speedway. The three-time NASCAR champion missed the final 15 Sprint Cup races of the 2013 season, and is still recovering.

Stewart spent four hours on the track Monday at an undisclosed location. He said the test was “full-blown” and included hot laps, and was not him just getting re-acclimated.

“It was fun,” Stewart said. “Obviously, it’s been nine and a half months since I got a chance to run one. It wasn’t just going out and making laps. We actually got a chance to run through a lot of shock stuff and set-up stuff.

“It was just like when I got in the Cup car -- it felt like I hadn’t been out of it.”

Despite the risks, Stewart said no one tried talking out of him getting back behind the wheel of a sprint car. And even if someone had, he wasn’t going to be dissuaded anyway as sprint-car racing is his passion and something he’s adamant about continuing in his free time.

“It’s my life,” Stewart said. “I’m going to live my life. It’s nobody else’s decision, but mine. I think there are a lot worse things I could be doing with my life than what I choose to do.”