BROOKLYN, Mich. — Tony Stewart opened his remarks with a few words about his relationship with Jason Leffler.

Moments later, he offered a brief plea amid growing safety questions about Leffler’s death at a dirt-track race earlier this week.

“I’d be grateful if you guys would understand that what happened this week wasn’t because somebody didn’t do something right with the race track. It was an accident. Just like if you go out and there’s a car crash. It’s an accident,” Stewart said Friday at Michigan. “Nobody as a track owner wants to go through what happened this week, but it’s not due to a lack of effort on their part to try to make their facilities as safe as possible under the conditions they have.”

Leffler died Wednesday night from injuries suffered in a sprint car crash at Bridgeport Speedway in Swedesboro, N.J. The Delaware County (Pa.) medical examiner determined Leffler died from a blunt force neck injury. He was 37 and is survived by a 5-year-old son.

Stewart knows all about the challenges facing track owners. He owns Eldora Speedway in Ohio, a dirt track that will host a NASCAR Truck Series race next month. He’s one of a handful of big names who will show up to race at small, local tracks from time to time, but Leffler’s death brought renewed attention to the safety of those races — and not everyone is optimistic.

“I don’t run those races for a reason. I have teams, yes, certainly. There are a handful of drivers that run at the local level. I don’t very often,” said Brad Keselowski, the defending Sprint Cup champion. “I don’t know what happened to Jason, and maybe it was completely unrelated, and I don’t want that to be confused, but still, the safety standards at local short tracks — they’re out of control. They’re dismal.”

Sprint car races can be more dangerous for drivers and spectators because many facilities lack the SAFER barriers that are standard in NASCAR and IndyCar, and the cars aren’t always adequately protected. Bridgeport Speedway does not have SAFER Barriers, energy-absorbing walls cost about $500 a foot for installation. Most local short tracks cannot afford them.

Stewart said safety is improving, though.

“Most of them have safety teams at each facility. ... That’s probably the one thing I’ve seen the most of is having adequate safety teams there and making sure they can respond to the problem pretty quick,” Stewart said. “I think things are the best they’ve ever been at this point. There’s facilities that need some work and there’s facilities that put a lot of effort into it.”

Tom Deery is president of World Racing Group, which sanctions dirt track racing in the United States and Canada. He said there have been advancements in seat and seat-belt technology, and lot of safety improvements can filter down from the Sprint Cup level.

Not fast enough for Keselowski.

“They don’t have the safety standards that we have here in NASCAR. That’s not to say that all tracks in NASCAR have it right, either. ... but it’s even 100 times worse at the local level,” Keselowski said.

Deery took exception to that comment, and said owners of these small tracks likely would, too, especially since so many have a personal stake in the venue’s safety.

“Probably more often than not, they either have a family member that participates or they participate there themselves,” Deery said.