Tony Stewart visits injured fans
After being involved in a crash during the Daytona 500 on Sunday, Tony Stewart was unable to finish the Great American Race. His crash however, was nothing compared to the disastrous one during the Nationwide series race on the previous day, which injured people in the stands. On the last lap of the race, a huge crash occurred that sent fiery debris into the audience, causing 28 injuries.
President Joie Chitwood reported that 14 fans were transported to a hospital, while 14 others were treated at the track facilities.
Since he was not involved in the crash, Stewart was able to pull out a win at Saturday’s race. Then, he decided he needed to visit those who were injured. He spent more than two hours after the Daytona 500 visiting with the six patients who were still hospitalized at Halifax Health.
“We’ve always known since racing was started this was a dangerous sport, but we assume that risk, and it’s hard when the fans get caught up in it,” Stewart said after Saturday’s victory. “So as much as we want to celebrate now and as much as this is a big deal to all of us, I’m more worried about the drivers (injured) and the fans in the stands right now, because I could see it all in the mirror, and it didn’t look good from where I was at, either.”
Stewart autographed a hat in front of each patient as a “get well soon” gift. Stewart tried to make his visit unknown, not wanting the publicity for visiting the patients, but the new spread quickly onto Twitter the following day.
While Stewart may not have the best reputation, visiting those patients in the hospital definitely helped him out, whether he wanted people to know about it or not.
