Tony Stewart says he never considered retiring from racing following the death of Kevin Ward Jr.

The three-time NASCAR champion talked with reporters on Monday at his first news conference since a grand jury decided last week not to charge him in Ward’s death.

The 20-year-old driver was struck and killed by Stewart’s car during a sprint car race in upstate New York on August 9.

“This is what I’ve done all my life. This is what I’ve done for 36 years, and I wouldn’t change anything about it,” he said.

“I love what I do. I love driving race cars, but I think it might change right now as far as how much of it and what I do, but there was never a thought in my head about stopping. That would take the life out of me.”

Stewart took 29 questions over 36 minutes at Stewart-Haas Racing, but did not discuss what he remembers about the incident that killed Ward.

He has been advised by legal counsel not to discuss it because he still could face a civil lawsuit from Ward’s family.

He admitted he’s not been properly engaged with the four-car race team he co-owns. He missed three races following Ward’s death as he secluded himself at his Indiana home, but has been back since the August 31 race at Atlanta.

The 43-year-old Stewart didn’t earn a berth in the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship.

Stewart, who barely watched the three races he missed, said he has not been the leader he’d like to be for his team.

“I’ve let my team down from that standpoint. I’ve been a little bit of a cheerleader, but that’s about all I’ve been able to contribute here the last seven weeks,” he said.

“It’s been hard for me to function day-to-day. There hasn’t been anything normal about my life the last seven weeks, so it’s been very hard to try to do anything to be productive to help those guys.”

Stewart has been receiving professional help to cope with Ward’s death. Asked Monday if he could go back and change anything about the last seven weeks, Stewart said he would not have gone to Canandaigua Motorsports Park for what turned into a tragic sprint car race.

“I’d have stayed at Watkins Glen that night,” he said.

“You know, I do this stuff and I go run those cars to have a good time and that’s all I wanted to do that night.

“I wanted to go have fun. It wasn’t a big paying race for sprint car standards.

“I just wanted to go run my sprint car for a night. I do it to have fun, and it didn’t end up being fun that night.”