After the ordeal of being the cause of someone's death, a colleague at that, Tony Stewart is slowly trying to regain his old life by starting to focus his attention on racing.
Stewart returned to racing last week for the first time since the incident which his sprint car struck and killed Kevin Ward Jr. at an upstate New York dirt track. Right after the race, Stewart was seen walking down the tracks, silently signing autographs from fans and disappearing to his team's transporter.
Stewart didn't do well during his return. According to the vice president of competition at Stewart-Haas Racing, Greg Zipadelli, "he's just plugging away, trying to get back in the groove. He's quiet. 'He's just staying focused on his car. He realizes this is a big weekend and trying to win the race, so that's what everybody is trying to do right now."
NASCAR supported Stwart and had provided him a waiver that will permit him to participate in the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship should he qualify. The investigation is still ongoing regarding the death of Ward and that it is still not known whether he will be facing charges.
Zipadelli said "This is truly just a tragedy. You are talking about somebody who lost their life. You are talking about (sprint car racing) that (Stewart) enjoyed, just loved to do it, it was his golf game, his hunting and fishing, whatever you want to call it, and it's just a really bad situation."
He added "There are a lot of things that he's gone through that I went through earlier in my life that we could sit and talk about. But this is something that none of us can."
Stewart has never before had a winless season and has only missed the Chase twice in his career. Zipadelli has said that they had yet to decide what will happen for the rest of the season. If Stewart will not make it to Chase, they would have to move personnel from No 14 Team as they look forward for 2015.
He said "They haven't had an honest, good, solid healthy year to even get in the groove. So if he doesn't win tomorrow night, it's all about moving people around and looking at whatever we've got to do to make this a better team for next year. It's (also) all about them trying to win."
Although Stewart has a past of rising above his challegnges, Zipadelli believes that this will not apply this time around. He said "'If there was somebody in the garage that you had to put in the car under the circumstances ... I think he has proven that in the past. But again, this is different circumstances that's pretty hard to put behind you and completely get focused on one thing and get out and do it."
