Stewart needs second surgery; fellow driver tweets he 'saved my life'

• Stewart could be facing at least 3-4 months of recovery after breaking his leg Monday night
• Stewart will stay in the hospital for observation before doctors perform a second surgery
• Max Papis will replace Stewart in the No. 14 Chevrolet at Watkins Glen

Tony Stewart will need a second surgery on his right leg after breaking it in two places Monday night in a sprint car crash in Iowa.

A Stewart-Haas Racing statement said Stewart, who underwent an initial surgery to stabilize and clean the injury, will require a second surgery for the Grade II injury. The broken leg was his only injury from the crash.

Stewart will stay in the hospital for observation.

"I told someone to go get my phone or else I was going to get up and get it myself," a post on Stewart's Facebook page said. "Finally got reconnected to the world and just want to say thank you for all the prayers and well wishes. My team will remain strong and I will be back."

During Monday night's race, Stewart's car collided with Josh Higday's and flipped three times before coming to a stop.

Higday, who could not be reached for comment Tuesday, thanked Stewart on Twitter for avoiding his cockpit and wrote the Cup star's last-second turn to the right "saved my life."

Higday's wife, Dawn, indicated on Twitter that her husband believed something broke inside his car, putting it on a different path.

"Just saw the video of the crash last night," Dawn Higday tweeted. "I'm just going to thank God that I still have a husband and hope Tony recovers soon."

Steven Meier, orthopedic surgeon and founder of Meier Orthopedic Sports Medicine of Beverly Hills, Calif., said that Stewart probably suffered an open fracture of both the tibia (the main shin bone) and fibula (the smaller bone) in the lower leg.

"The Grade II designation implies that the soft tissue envelope was breached and the fractured bones were exposed and protruding through the skin," Meier explained to USA TODAY Sports via email.

Meier, who has not seen nor treated Stewart, said tibia fractures are known to take a long time to heal, "usually 3-4 months just for the bone itself to heal. Then, there is the process of rebuilding muscle strength through rehabilitation.

"However, if the bones are rigidly fixed with a rod, Tony could be getting back into a race car much sooner than that depending on how extensive the soft tissue injury was, whether infection becomes an issue, and how long the soft tissue envelope takes to heal."

Max Papis will fill in for the injured Stewart this weekend at Watkins Glen, SHR announced Tuesday afternoon.

A few hours later, Papis tweeted a get well message and picture to Stewart, saying he will "keep your baby nice and warm."

Papis, who has years of road-racing experience all over the world, will drive the No. 14 Chevrolet in Sunday's NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race. Papis drove Stewart's No. 14 car on July 30 during a team test at Road Atlanta.

Missing the Watkins Glen race means Stewart will snap a streak of 521 starts dating to the 1999 Daytona 500 — his first career Cup race. His streak ranked 10th all time and was third among active drivers behind Jeff Gordon (710) and Jeff Burton (613).

Meier explained via email that treatment for the kind of fracture Stewart likely suffered normally requires addressing the soft tissue injury first and then the bone injury.

"If he is undergoing two separate procedures, then most likely the initial procedure was a debridement to clean and stabilize the damaged soft tissues (skin and muscle) to prevent infection ... which is a significant risk for this type of fracture when the bones are exposed. During this initial procedure, an external frame may be applied to the bones via surgical pins to temporarily stabilize the fracture.

The second procedure would then "definitively stabilize the fracture," by inserting a rod along the length of the tibia and locking it into place with screws.

"This method would provide rigid fixation and allow early weight bearing," Meier wrote. "Conceivably, it is possible he could get back behind the wheel before the season ends in November but that will depend on these other variables."

Stewart's crash Monday was his third in three weeks. He set off a multi-car crash July 16 in upstate New York that sent two drivers to the hospital, then flipped five times while racing on July 29 in Ontario, Canada.

After the flip in Canada, he became irritated with reporters who asked about the incident before Sunday's NASCAR race at Pocono Raceway.

"When they wreck, they get upside down like that," he said. "That was not a big deal. ... I guarantee you there were 15 to 20 guys across the country that flipped just like that this weekend and were just fine just like we were. If it's bad, we will let you guys know."

Kendra Jacobs, a spokesperson for Stewart's chartiy event "Tony Stewart's Kick-It Cup," said due to his injuries at Oskaloosa that he would not attend Wednesday's scheduled charity karting race in Knoxville, Iowa, with four-time NASCAR champion Jeff Gordon. Stewart will be replaced by Kyle Larson, Jacobs said.

The Tony Stewart Spectacular kart race will pit 68 fans against Gordon and Larson (a rising NASCAR star who is competing in the Knoxville Nationals this week) in a seven-heat race, one-feature format.

Contributing: Gary Mihoces in McLean, Va., and The Des Moines Register

Follow Jeff Gluck on Twitter @jeff_gluck