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KANNAPOLIS, NC – Three-time NASCAR Champion Tony Stewart is breaking his silence days after a Grand Jury decided not to indict him in the death of dirt track driver Kevin Ward Jr.
Stewart says he still has a passion for racing and will continue in NASCAR.
“I’ve had drivers that I race with every week and drivers that I haven’t raced with in months that have said, ‘Don’t let this keep you from doing what you love,'” he says.
While he’s relieved a Grand Jury decided not to indict him Wednesday, he says the past few weeks have been emotionally draining. “Sat there for an entire, days on end, sitting there asking questions, and trying to come to terms with what happened and why it happened,” he says.
Stewart says he spent most of the first several days isolated inside his home. “I didn’t get out of bed. I didn’t care if I took a shower. I left my room to go get food and that you almost had to make yourself eat,” he says.
He hopes things will get easier with time and as he transitions back into racing. “It makes you think about a lot of things other than driving race cars, but the one thing that’s probably helped me more than anything is being back at the race track and being around my racing family,” he says.
Stewart says he is open to speaking with Ward’s family, if they’re willing. “I know what happened and I know it was an accident, but I’m offering to talk to them to them, if it helps them with closure,” he says.
Ward’s mother released a statement last week the family will pursue what she called “all remedies” in fairness to Kevin.
