Had Tony Stewart been riding on any other surface, he'd be dead now. As it is, he is lucky to be alive.
The retiring NASCAR driver addressed his broken back injury via the Periscope app, Fox Sports reported.
Tony Stewart Sets Sights On May 21 Return
He revealed that he was only going 5 miles per hour on his ATV in a sand dunes area outside of San Diego last week.
But he guided his dune that had a steep cliff, leading to his broken back, according to The Associated Press.
Broken Back Suggests Potentially Dangerous Final Year For Tony Stewart
"I didn't hit the wrong dune," he said. "I just went over one and just nose-planted in the bottom of it. It was about a 20- or 25-foot drop. I didn't think it was straight down on the other side. ... It's like I told the guys at the shop, it's pretty hard to make a story about breaking your back sound cool when you're only going five mile an hour. I've never been hurt so bad running five miles an hour in my life."
Stewart exposed the bruises on his broken back.
If you missed the Periscope session that @TonyStewart held earlier today, you also missed this image of his back! pic.twitter.com/jCSwpsBpHS
— SiriusXM NASCAR (@SiriusXMNASCAR) February 12, 2016
"We are doing much better," said Stewart while walking on a treadmill with music blaring in the background, according to Fox Sports. "We're starting to get the pain under control. I just didn't want everybody to think while everybody was at Daytona today that I was just sitting on my ass here in Charlotte. I just got on the treadmill for a little while and I'm supposed to be on it two or three times a day. ...
"Walking actually feels pretty good for my back right now. They either want me laying flat on my back or walking. They don't want me sitting up or standing in one spot, so if I'm up I've got to be walking. If I'm not up I've got to be laying down."
He also said he had two rods and six crews inserted in his back, and he still has a rod in his left leg from his 2013 dirt-track crash. Everything will be removed after the season.
Stewart, who was stranded by his ATV for 90 minutes until the other riders in his group --- Jeff Gordon, Greg Biffle and Rusty Wallace --- discovered him, maintained that he still intends to retire from NASCAR driving at the end of this year and won't try to race in next year's Daytona 500.
It's a race he never has won.
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