Stewart said his left leg will be about 65 percent healed when he gets to Daytona as he continues therapy after an Aug. 5 sprint-car racing accident where he broke both his right tibia and fibula. Stewart has needed three surgeries since the accident and missed the final 15 races last year.

The three-time Cup champion won't actually run laps in a Cup car until Feb. 14, the first day of practice for the Sprint Unlimited the next day and nine days before the Daytona 500.

“I’m cleared to start the day before the Shootout (Unlimited),” Stewart said Monday during the first day of the annual Sprint Media Tour. "With the bone being healed only 65 percent (by then), he’s not wanting me to risk getting in a car any earlier than I have to compete.

“As much as I would like to be in a car testing, and it would be great for us as a team to test, we need to let that leg have as much time to heal (as possible) before we actually have to get in the car. We’re not anticipating any problems, but it’s just eliminating opportunities for something to aggravate it or re-injure it.”

Stewart had two surgeries the week after the accident, one to stabilize the injury and another to insert a titanium rod in his leg, which had been punctured by a torque tube. He then had a third in October because of an infection.

“The strength will be as strong as it was before the injury because of the titanium rod (in my leg),” Stewart said. “Do we feel like there’s a risk? No more than there normally would be. It’s just a matter of what do we have to do comfort-wise, whether it’s little things like vibration that normally wouldn’t be an issue.”

Stewart said his Stewart-Haas Racing team is trying to be proactive, adding padding in places where there might be a problem. He is hoping that they get to Daytona and realize they have been overly cautious.


BUSCH CLOSE TO INDY 500 RIDE


Kurt Busch is closing in on a deal to possibly run the Indy 500 in 2014, making him the fourth driver to run the Indy-Charlotte doubleheader on Memorial Day weekend.

Busch, who tested at Indy last year, said Monday that there is now a 70 percent chance that he could run the Indianapolis 500, which is run on the same Sunday as NASCAR’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

“It’s actually grabbed better traction over the last couple of weeks and gotten me excited to say that the percentage has going up instead of down,” Busch said. “The teams that are showing interest and the sponsors, the opportunity is there.”

Busch, who has joined Tony Stewart’s Stewart-Haas Racing this season, would join Stewart, John Andretti and Robby Gordon as drivers who have run both races on the same day.

Busch will drive for a new fourth Stewart-Haas team this year put together by team co-owner Gene Haas and sponsored by Haas’ Haas Automation company. 

“I have Gene’s blessing, I have Tony’s blessing, I think we have even rounded up some partners that will make transportation easier,” Busch said. “Things have started to gather. I don’t know when we’ll have a decision but we now have to understand how NASCAR’s qualifying procedures will work and the time that I cannot be out of the Cup car to go and do Indianapolis stuff. We have to make sure we balance that and not sacrifice too much from the 41 Haas Automation car.”

Busch said there is about a 70 percent chance he would run the Indy 500, likely with the Andretti Autosport team. He said he is talking to both Andretti and another IndyCar team, but is leaning toward a deal with Michael Andretti’s group.

“Andretti helped me do my rookie test so I feel the genuine connection with the Andretti Autosport group,” Busch said. “And when you start something with somebody, you want to finish it with (them).”


DANICA WON’T RUN INDY


While Kurt Busch is close to a deal to run the Indy 500 this year, his teammate, Danica Patrick, says she won’t be running the race again anytime soon.

Patrick, who finished third in the 2009 Indy 500 and has five top-10 finishes in the event, said Monday that she is no longer interested in running the race at Indy and the Indy-Charlotte double. Patrick and Busch are teammates at Stewart-Haas Racing.

“I love the Indy 500,” she said. “It’s an amazing event and everyone should go see it sometime, but as far as me as a driver, I’m not seeking it out anymore. I’m not saying I wouldn’t take the opportunity if I felt like I was in a position to win a race, but after last year when it didn’t work out, I’m no longer trying to make that happen.”

Patrick, a former IndyCar star, moved to NASCAR part time in 2010 and ran the full Sprint Cup schedule for the first time last year. She tried to put together a deal to run the Indy-Charlotte double last season, but it didn’t work out.

Patrick said she won’t attempt to run Indy again — unless it’s an opportunity she can’t turn down.

“I feel like last year I kinda made a final effort going for last year’s race and when it didn’t happen and it wasn’t the right thing to do for me as a driver, I really feel like I have gone far enough now without doing it that I feel like I’m not seeking it out anymore,” she said. “I wouldn’t want anything to take away from what I’ve done there.

“At this point in time, my sole focus is Cup, and it takes that. It really takes the sole focus; it’s unbelievable how much it takes to compete at this level. So I’ve stopped making an active effort to doing (Indy).”


HARVICK LIVING WITH MOTHER-IN-LAW


If fans thought Kevin Harvick living in his motorhome after a Nov. 27 fire at his house was rough, his new living quarters would make some people cringe.

He’s living with his mother-in-law.

Actually, it’s really not that bad for Harvick, his wife DeLana and 18-month-old son Keelan.

“We’re living at DeLana’s mother’s house — it’s been awesome,” Harvick said. “It’s been fun, honestly. I get along with her mom great.”

In fact, Kevin might be enjoying it more than his wife?

“Oh for sure,” Harvick said. “I ask her all the time, ‘Did you ever think you’d be living with your mom again after you got out of college? Here we are. Six months in your mom’s house.’”

The fire started when a floor joist underneath the fireplace caught fire between the downstairs ceiling and the upstairs floor. The fire alarm woke up the family and saved the house from being burned to the ground. The Harvicks won't get back into their house until May after the fire heavily damaged the $4.78-million home.

“It’s going to be a lot,” Harvick said about the costs to rebuild, which will be covered by insurance. “I don’t know (how much). There’s nothing in it. They’ve had to tear (out) a lot of the ceilings and floors.

“It could be a lot (of money), but I don’t have to pay for it.”


FOR DANICA, BATHROOM BREAKS A CHALLENGE IN MUSCLE SUIT


Danica Patrick has done all sorts of bizarre and interesting things for sponsor GoDaddy’s popular Super Bowl commercials.

But wearing a muscle suit and posing as a body builder was a new experience and a new challenge — even for Danica.

“I’m always pretty much up for whatever,” she said. “They have done some creative things, but this one was definitely one of the most interesting, I thought. That suit took four hours to get into, between getting it on, which was extremely tight and cut the circulation off to my arms. My hands felt like sausages by the end of it.”

Patrick had to wear a body-builder costume designed by Legacy Effects, a special effects studio that specializes in such suits. It’s most recent work includes suits for such popular movie characters as Captain America, X-Men and RoboCop. The GoDaddy muscle suit took three weeks to build and four hours to get Patrick into it.

The worst part, she said, was ... well, we’ll let her explain. 

“I was in the suit for seven hours and I didn’t pee once,” she said. “This might be vivid, but they have a zipper down below and they gave me a funnel to put down there, and I’m just going to say, couldn’t do it. It wouldn’t happen. It was like I was wearing clothes that just felt wrong. But on the other hand, it didn’t really matter if I had to go to the bathroom, my abs were spray-painted on. I could have had a food baby in there and it wouldn’t have mattered.”

Patrick will star in her 13th Super Bowl commercial on Sunday, more than any other celebrity. She likes being part of GoDaddy’s creative marketing plans. 

“It was cool, it was really neat,” she said. “It was fun to work with all the body-builder guys. I was very inquisitive about their workout regime and what they had to do. But at the end of the day, some people just get to look like that. For me, it took four hours.”

Contributors: Bob Pockrass, Jeff Owens