BRISTOL, Tenn. -- Tony Stewart walked gingerly Thursday, careful not to strain his tender back. With a race at his favorite track looming, he could take no chances.

"I'm pretty sore," Stewart said. "The doctor ordered rest, but there's not a lot of time for that."

Stewart, injured in a wreck last week, plans to qualify his Pontiac today for the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway, a physically demanding race track that he's always been fond of. But after a few laps around the .533-mile bullring, he might change his mind.

After Sunday's crash at Darlington Raceway, Stewart spent one night in the hospital because of lower back pain. He's been on painkillers all week, but is weaning himself off of them to be sharp in his race car.

"I'm just hoping the pain will go away a little more than it has by the weekend," he said. "Each day has been a little better, but I'm, pretty stiff. This is a demanding track and you never get to relax here."

Stewart has long considered Bristol his favorite race track because it reminds him of his early days when he was tearing up the short tracks in the Midwest. But it took him some time to find success here -- he finally cracked the winner's circle last August in the night race -- to raise his average finish in six Bristol races to 15th.

"Bristol is similar to Winchester (Ind.) and Salem (Ind.), places where I always ran well in the open-wheel cars," he said. "It's just a half-mile track and I like tracks that size -- especially with the banking Bristol has. I seem to be better on the high-banked tracks, anyway."

Others love Bristol, too.

Elliott Sadler won the only race of his Winston Cup career when he picked up a victory here last March for Wood Brothers Racing.

"Bristol is heaven on earth," he said. "I know people might think I'm saying that because I won there, but it has always been like that for me. I tell every fan that Bristol is the place he should go to watch a race. It's the best place in the world."