Stewart breaks silence, answers injury questions

Tony Stewart crashed at 5 mph and broke his back

Tony Stewart is up and walking, breaking his social media silence for the first time since suffering severe back injuries in an all-terrain vehicle accident Jan. 31.

The three-time NASCAR champion answered questions about his injuries, his future and his outlook through two live-streaming Periscope sessions Friday morning from his North Carolina home. Stewart was seen walking on a treadmill and briefly showed the scars from his back surgery, which repaired the burst fracture of his L1 vertebra.

"We're starting to get the pain under control," said Stewart, who aims to return for the remainder of his final NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season. "I didn't want everybody to think that while everyone was at Daytona today, I was sitting on my ass in Charlotte."

Stewart, 44, said that his accident in the desert came at low speed, explaining that the sand buggy he was driving "nose-planted" into a dune after a drop of an estimated 20-25 feet. He noted that he was unable to call for help since there was no cell-phone signal and the group he was with did not have two-way radios.

He joked about having difficulty in embellishing his story, "when you're only going 5 mph. Hard to make that sound cool at all." Zack Albert/NASCAR.com