NASCAR: Prudhomme provides details of Stewart's accident

Prudhomme said former NASCAR car owner Ray Evernham and car collector Ron Pratte took charge in transporting Stewart back to Pratte's property nearby, from which a helicopter was called in to airlift Stewart to a hospital in Palm Springs.

"Pretty much once we got to a spot where the helicopter came in, I was carrying Tony, he had his arm around me and Ray Evernham on the other side. You know, he's a big guy. He was hurting big time, but he wasn't complaining. The guy who really, really helped a ton was Ray. Because there was a helicopter pilot, someone had to go with Tony … and Ray jumped in and he was the guy that really kind of took over and made all the right decisions."

Prudhomme emphasized that Stewart had not been taking any excessive risks.

"I just want to make one thing clear: (Stewart) had his helmet on, he had his seat belt stuff on right, he wasn't driving crazy," Prudhomme said. "He just took an unfortunate hit in the back going over this jump. That's pretty much what it amounted to. It wasn't like a wild story about Tony Stewart getting crazy and (expletive) like that. He just took the wrong hit."

Stewart was found to have suffered an L1 vertebrae fracture, for which he underwent surgery. He is expected to make a full recovery and to race at some point this year, according to his Stewart Haas Racig team, but no timetable for his return has been fixed.