Tony Stewart cleared to return at Daytona (Update)

UPDATE STEWART ON HIS RECOVERY – “It just keeps getting better and better each week. I got a great therapist here in Charlotte. He’s working me out hard, not making it easy by any means, but it’s not supposed to be easy. It’s supposed to be difficult, it’s supposed to be challenging, but I’m really, really happy with the progress. I feel like it, and he feels like that we’re over the hard part – over the hump – and that doesn’t mean the intensity level goes down with the therapy and the work we do, but at the same time, we’re making great progress. We’ll judge it Sunday to Sunday and if you had to put it on a chart – it’s a straight line going uphill. There are days I feel better than others; and then there are some days that I can’t explain that I don’t feel as good. Over the average of the week, it just keeps getting better."

STEWART ON GETTING INTO THE CAR FOR THE FIRST TIME IN SIX MONTHS – “They got me out, but it wasn’t that they couldn’t physically get me out, I was comfortable. It was like trying on an old pair of shoes and it was a scenario where I was happy to be back in it. Mark (Martin) has been in my car, and he likes the steering wheel in a different spot, everything has to be changed when the two of us drive. Just getting things back to where they need to be for the Shootout – it was fun to go through the process again. Normally, you don’t get excited about climbing into a race car at the shop, but when you haven’t done it for so long, it was really nice to go through that process again."

01/26/14 Fox Sports Tom Jensen tweeted that #14-Tony Stewart has been cleared to be back behind the wheel for the first practice in the Sprint Unlimited. That practice is scheduled for Friday, February 14.