Stewart, whose leg was punctured by a front-end piece of the sprint car he crashed when trying to avoid another vehicle in an Aug. 5 race at Southern Iowa Speedway, has estimated that his leg will be 65 percent healed when practice starts Friday at Daytona International Speedway.

The three-time Cup champion has had three surgeries to repair his leg, including one where an aluminum rod was inserted. After undergoing intensive therapy, Stewart expects his leg should have the full strength he needs to race.

The 42-year-old Stewart will have 105 minutes of practice Friday for the Sprint Unlimited, a 75-lap race Saturday night. Teams also have nearly four hours of practice Saturday for Daytona 500 qualifying, which is scheduled for Sunday. Stewart will then have two days off before a full schedule of Cup practices and races leading into the Feb. 23 Daytona 500.

A Stewart-Haas Racing spokesman said that the team has no standby driver tapped for the weekend. Mark Martin, who insists he won’t race again, tested for Stewart last month.

“I’ve had to sit through the end of last season and the whole offseason, so I feel like I could get in a car right now and go race,” Stewart said in a Stewart-Haas Racing news release. “So, there’s isn’t any anxiety as far as what’s going to happen, it’s more about being anxious to get started and get going again. I think that probably will override any pain that may exist.”

To help get him ready to race, Stewart's team built a module that includes a seat, a steering wheel, steering column and pedals for Stewart, who would sit and hold the pedal down for 20 minutes to simulate the pressure of having his foot on the throttle.

“Fortunately, we’re not in a situation where I’ve got to do 100-yard sprints,” Stewart said. “If we had to do that ,we’d be in a lot different situation. I’ll still have to deal with G-forces, vibrations and all of the things that a racecar driver navigates.

“We obviously won’t know exactly how the leg will respond and the amount of pain there may be until I’m in the car for the practice session before the Sprint Unlimited. Those are variables we still don’t know yet, but the stuff that we’re doing in therapy, it’s very encouraging.”


DANICA ADDS RACE


Danica Patrick will compete in the season-opening Nationwide Series race Feb. 22 at Daytona International Speedway.

Patrick will drive for Turner Scott Motorsports, the same team that she drove for at Daytona and Talladega last year but did not finish either race. She led five laps at Daytona but retired early with an electrical issue and was in an accident early in the Talladega event.

She will drive the No. 30 Chevrolet with sponsorship from the Florida Lottery. Mike Greci will be the crew chief for Patrick, who is entering her second full-time season of Sprint Cup racing. Patrick's eighth-place finish in the 2013 Daytona 500 was the highest finish for a female ever in that race.

"Turner Scott Motorsports is a great organization, and I worked really well with Mike Greci and the whole team in both of the races I did with them last year,” Patrick said.

“I know that I'm definitely capable of a win this year working with that group, it just comes down to making it until the end.”


DAYTONA QUALIFYING


There are only seven drivers who don’t have to worry about qualifying for the 2014 Daytona 500.

Many others have a good feeling that they will be among those who qualify for one of the 43 spots in the field for the Feb. 23 race at Daytona International Speedway, but the way to get into the Daytona 500 is complicated.

After single-lap qualifying Feb. 16 (NASCAR’s new group qualifying format won’t start in Cup until the following week), 13 drivers will know they are in. The rest of the field will know Feb. 20 after the Budweiser Duel qualifying races.

So how do drivers get into the Daytona 500? Let’s take a look:

• The front row, positions 1-2, will go to the two fastest drivers from their qualifying runs on Feb. 16.

• Positions 3-32 will be set by the finishing order in Budweiser Duel qualifying races on Feb. 20. Drivers who finish in the top 15 in their respective races earn spots in the Daytona 500 and the 16th-place driver gets in as long as one of the top-15 drivers already occupies one of the two front-row spots.

• Positions 33-36 will go to the drivers who didn’t make it through the qualifying races but posted the fastest four speeds in qualifying Feb. 16.

• Positions 37-42 will be awarded as provisionals based on 2013 owner points. That means these drivers (the top six in 2013 owner points) are guaranteed spots if they already don’t have them: Jimmie Johnson, Matt Kenseth, Austin Dillon, Kyle Busch, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jeff Gordon. Last year, the final driver to get in on owner points was Michael McDowell, whose team was 39th the previous year.

• Position 43 will be a past champion’s provisional, going to the most recent past champion not yet in the field. If there is no past champion, then the spot will be filled by the next driver eligible based on 2013 owner points. That means that Brad Keselowski is guaranteed a spot because he would be the first remaining eligible driver for a past champion spot.

Contributor: Bob Pockrass