Tony Stewart Injured in Sprint Car Wreck; What Does This Mean for the Future?

         This news has been the talk of the NASCAR world today. Tony Stewart broke his right leg in a sprint car crash on Monday night at Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa, Iowa. While leading the 30 lap feature, Stewart got involved in a wreck with a lapped car that caused him to flip numerous times. The wreck left him with a broken tibia and fibula in his right leg. Stewart underwent surgery on Tuesday morning and will be forced to miss the race at Watkins Glen and possibly a lot more. Stewart was in prime position to make the Chase for the Sprint Cup Series, but now he will probably miss the Chase due to his injury. This incident has brought up criticism and a lot of concern for safety. For one, this in the third sprint car incident Stewart has been a part of in the last three weeks. On July 16, Stewart was involved in a huge wreck at Canandaiuga Motorsports Park in Canandaiuga, New York that left Alysha Ruggles, a female driver from the area, with a back injury. On July 29, Stewart flipped multiple times at Oshweken Speedway in Ontario, Canada while running for the lead. Stewart was able to walk away from both incidents and even downplayed the last incident at Pocono. "You mortals have got to learn, you guys need to watch more sprint car videos and stuff," Stewart shot back during his media session at Pocono. "It was not a big deal. It's starting to get annoying this week about that. That was just an average sprint car wreck. When they wreck, they get upside down like that." Just days after saying that, Stewart was involved in a brutal sprint car wreck. The second thing this incident has brought up is safety in sprint cars. It has been a tough year for dirt racing in terms of safety. Just two months ago, Jason Leffler lost his life in a sprint car incident at Bridgeport Speedway in New Jersey. Kramer Williamson, a veteran sprint car driver, lost his life just two days ago after injuries sustained at Lincoln Speedway in Pennsylvania on Saturday. Josh Burton, two drivers in Nevada, and two fans in California also lost their lives at sprint car events. It is definitely a dangerous part of motor racing, but this could add a lot a safety to sprint car racing. A final thing this affects is Stewart-Haas Racing and Stewart's chances in the Chase. Since Stewart can not race this weekend at Watkins Glen, his team was forced to find a replacement. They decided to call on Max Papis to replace Stewart. Papis is a decorated road racer and has a win at Watkins Glen in a Daytona Prototype. Since Tony will not run a lap on Sunday, he will not get the points and probably fall out of the wild card spot. Plus, he is sure to miss more races afterwards which will cause him to fall out of the top 20, causing him to fall out of wild card contention. Finally, Stewart's streak of 521 consecutive Sprint Cup races, which is 10th all-time, will come to an unfortunate end. It will be a long road to recovery for Stewart, but when he can get back behind the wheel of a racecar, he will definitely do it. I will leave this article with some of the well wishes from his fellow competitors and friends on Twitter.

Danica Patrick (@DanicaPatrick): Such a sad situation with tony. He was racing cars he loves. When he's healed, it will be like he never missed beat! Heal fast big brother!
Ryan Newman (@RyanNewman39): Can't blame a guy for doing what he loves. Hoping my buddy Tony has a fast recovery.
Clint Bowyer (@ClintBowyer): Hate it for Tony, he does what he loves and has single handedly sold out crowds at short tracks all across country for years. That's impact
Kevin Harvick (@KevinHarvick): Yesterday was strange, hopefully today is a much better day. Thinking about my buddy Smoke. #notasprintcarfan
Kyle Busch (@KyleBusch): Wishing Tony Stewart a speedy recovery. #GetWellSmoke
Kasey Kahne (@kaseykahne): Thinking about Tony this morning. Heal up quick buddy! Leading A-main when crash happened. All smoke does is go fast #badass
Mark Martin (@55MarkMartin): I'm really sorry to hear about Tony Stewart's injury. But thankful it wasn't worse. #getwellsoonTony
Elliott Sadler (@Elliott_Sadler): Wishing Tony a quick recovery...I hope people don't 2nd guess him.That dude is a racer. Period.His support of Sprint car racing is unmatched
Juan Pablo Montoya (jpmontoya): heard about tony's leg this morning. that sucks for him, specially having the glen this weekend. hope he gets better soon.
Martin Truex Jr. (@MartinTruexJr56): Sorry to hear about tony this morning.
Justin Allgaier (@J_Allgaier): Really hate to hear about #Smoke.... Hope for a speedy recovery....Sprint cars this year have been rough, but glad he is going to be ok...
Kenny Wallace (@Kenny_Wallace): We CANNOT go through life saying "If I do this OR that I might get hurt" GET WELL #TonyStewart
Josh Wise (@Josh_Wise): Racing sprint cars my entire life I always understood the risks. You can be sure Tony understood them as well. Praying for speedy recovery.
AJ Allmendinger (@AJDinger): Hoping Smoke recovers quickly. One of the best wheel man there is in the world doing what he loves to do. #muchrespect
J.J. Yeley (@jjyeley1): Just landed in Atlanta to test today and heard about my bud Tony crashing last night at the Front Row Challenge. Speedy recovery bud!
Aric Almirola (@aric_almirola): Just saw the news about Stewart. Man I hope he heals up quick!
Michael Waltrip (@mw55): Tony #smoke That dude loves sprint cars. Hope he's ok.
Denny Hamlin (@dennyhamlin): Man I really hope Tony Is ok.
Nelson Piquet Jr. (@NelsonPiquet): Sorry to hear about (Tony Stewart)! Hope he recovers quickly! But a double duty for me this weekend would be a dream come true!




Credits:
-Stories:
http://www.nascar.com/en_us/news-media/articles/2013/08/06/tony-stewart-replacement-driver-max-papis-watkins-glen.html
http://espn.go.com/racing/nascar/cup/story/_/id/9542562/nascar-driver-tony-stewart-hospitalized-wreck
http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nascar-from-the-marbles/tony-stewart-breaks-leg-iowa-sprint-car-wreck-115203250.html
http://www.stewarthaasracing.com/media/index.php?article=1239
http://www.nascar.com/en_us/news-media/articles/2013/08/06/nascar-tony-stewart-breaks-leg-sprint-car-crash.html
http://www.nascar.com/en_us/news-media/articles/2013/08/06/nascar-tony-stewart-breaks-leg-wreck-driver-reaction.html
-Video of Accident:
http://www.nascar.com/en_us/news-media/videos/2013/8/6/sprint-cup-series-tony-stewart-breaks-leg-in-iowa.html
-Image:
http://l3.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/MoVMFRviFpAsfe9ZPJwiUw--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7cT04NQ--/http://media.zenfs.com/en/blogs/sptusnascarmarbles/d0806ts.jpg