Pit Pass: Tony Stewart talks injured leg, Kinser
Tony Stewart walked into the Performance Racing Industry trade show Thursday at the Indiana Convention Center, which was a big deal given the physical stress his injured right leg has endured over the past 16 months.
Stewart recently had the fourth of what will be five planned surgeries last week.
"I don't look like I'm walking really good, but I was on crutches two days ago," he said. "It's nice to get off crutches again.
"I'm looking forward to the day my leg doesn't hurt anymore. I think that's coming sooner rather than later."
Stewart said the final surgery will remove the rod in the leg he broke in August 2013 at a dirt track race in southeastern Iowa. He acknowledged that the injuries haven't healed as quickly as doctors wanted to see, which is why the current rod, along with a small ring to help blood flow, was inserted in a prior surgery.
Last week's surgery, he said, was small by comparison, and a spokesman for his team described it as routine maintenance.
Stewart hasn't driven a sprint car since running into and killing New York racer Kevin Ward Jr. in August, but he said he "thinks about it every day." He again plans to attend next month's Chili Bowl, a prestigious dirt-track midget race in Tulsa, Okla., to help the event promoter with track preparation. Stewart won the event in 2002 and '07.
KINSER NOT DONE YET
Stewart was happy to confirm that his longtime friend, Steve Kinser, will be back in a sprint car in 2015. He said the 60-year-old Bloomington driver, who recently completed his final full World of Outlaws season, will compete in about 40 series races next year for Tony Stewart Racing.
Kinser has won a record 577 feature Outlaws races, nearly twice the number of Sammy Swindell in second place. Only three other series drivers have as many as 100 wins.
"This is a scenario where (Kinser) is the greatest driver in the sport, and you know there are a lot of drivers who later in their career have to quit for financial reasons, or different reasons," Stewart said. "He's a guy that I think has earned the right to race till he decides that he's ready to retire.
"As long as he wants to race we're going to have a car for him."
COUNTING CARS
Chevrolet IndyCar program manager Chris Berube confirmed Thursday that the company will have 12 entries in the upcoming Verizon IndyCar Series.
All but confirmed are four cars from Team Penske, three from Ganassi Racing and two each from CFH Racing and KV Racing Technology. But that's only 11.
The 12th is expected to come from Chip Ganassi's team by way of a car for Sage Karam, the 2013 Indy Lights champion who finished 10th in this year's Indianapolis 500.
Ganassi announced this week that it will have only one Target-sponsored car in IndyCar next year after having two for nearly 20 years. Scott Dixon will drive that car; Tony Kanaan's car will be sponsored by NTT Data.
Honda will field at least 10 cars and maybe 11 full-time next year. That's three for Andretti Autosport, two each for Schmidt Peterson Motorsports, A.J. Foyt Racing and Dale Coyne Racing and one for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. The 11th would be the fourth car at Andretti, if the team finds funding.
INDY LIGHTS NEWS
Mazda was confirmed Thursday to badge the new Indy Lights engine built by AER. It's a 2-liter, turbocharged four cylinder powerplant expected to produce 450 horsepower.
Dan Andersen projected "16 to 20" competitors for his second season owning Indy Lights; some races this year had as few as eight. The increase in participation is tied to the introduction of a new car, which will make its open test debut next month.
ETC.
Ryan Hunter-Reay and Kurt Busch will be teammates this weekend in the Race of Champions event in Barbados. Hunter-Reay participated in 2012; the event wasn't held last year. … Lucas Oil Raceway has expanded its oval-track schedule for 2015, adding a seven-race stock car series that begins March 29.