Tony Stewart's broken leg will keep the NASCAR driver sidelined for the remainder of the season. Stewart, who sustained the injury in a crash earlier in August, will be replaced by Austin Dillon and Mark Martin, the Associated Press reports.
Stewart could return by January 2014 for preseason testing. Martin, who was granted his release on Monday from Michael Waltrip Racing, is scheduled to drive Stewart's No. 14 car on Saturday, Aug. 24 at Bristol. He'll also drive in Stewart's stead for 11 other races.
Dillon, who finished 14th for Stewart at Michigan on Sunday, will race again for Stewart on Oct. 20 at Talladega.
"The team is in very good hands with Mark Martin and Austin Dillon," Stewart told AutoSport.com on Monday. "Mark is someone I've looked up to my entire career and I have a tremendous amount of respect for him. Austin is a great young talent, and he showed that on Sunday at Michigan."
Three-time NASCAR champion Stewart was hospitalized on Aug. 6 after wrecking during a sprint car race in Iowa. He broke both his right tibia and fibula in the crash, according to a Stewart-Haas Racing spokesman.
Stewart had been in the lead with five laps remaining in the Front Row Challenge when driver Josh Higday's car spun and took out Stewart's car and two others.
Brian Brown finished in first-place once the race resumed.
"First and foremost, we're concerned about Tony and making sure he's all right," Brown said after the race, according to USA Today Sports. "He's a huge asset to our sport, especially sprint car racing and an icon in the whole motor sports field. Anytime you see him wreck like that and then leave in an ambulance, it's never good. Hopefully he's okay. We weren't going to win that race. We were probably going to run third or fourth.
Brown described the wreck: "It looked like he got into a lapped car. When I got close, he was flipping cage down."
