Tony Stewart's racing problems are as much physical as they are mental, A.J. Foyt says.
USA TODAY Sports is reporting that Foyt, the 80-year-old, four-time winner of the Indianapolis 500, believes both of Stewart's accidents in 2013 and 2014 have contributed to his horrible start to 2015.
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Foyt had endured his own share of adversity, according to USA TODAY Sports, which allows him to speak to Stewart from a position authority. And right now, Stewart's 2015 season has been awful.
He's 30th in the points standings for the Chase for the Cup, and he is coming off a 19th-place performance at the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race in Charlotte, N.C., over the weekend.
Tony Stewart loses mental edge due to his track absences from 2013-14 because of injury
Says Foyt, "We talk quite a bit, off and on. I think that accident he had is really bugging Tony a lot more than people know. Where he got hurt, too, and that other accident. I don't care who you are. Stuff like that bothers you a lot more and I think Tony is really soft-hearted.
"It's something that happened. It just happens. It's happened with a lot of racing accidents and I think Tony is taking it a lot harder than people realize. As far as him having the ability, he has as much ability as anyone out there."
Stewart, who missed 15 races in 2013 with a broken leg and three in 2014 after his involvement in the tragic death lf Kevin Ward Jr., continually has blamed his subpar 2015 to his struggles with the new NASCAR rules that reduces downforce and horse power.
"It seems like when things run bad - it's like me being sick - it's just bam bam," Foyt told USA TODAY Sports. "Every time you get up, somebody knocks you down. That's kind of the way he has been in racing. He had everything going so good and everything went to crap and every time he got back up, he got knocked down again. I guess that's life."
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