Over the off-season break, Brad Keselowski broke his leg during a skiing event with his family. While ‘Kes’ hopes to be back in the car in time for the start of the season at Daytona; he has announced that he will not be ready to run his RFK Racing number six car in the Cook Out Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium on February 1.
RFK Racing’s backup driver Corey LaJoie will take over the driving duties of the six car in Keselowski’s absence.
LaJoie wrote on social media, “Happy to be of service. Wishing BK a speedy recovery. Let’s go get another trophy at The Madhouse.”
Brad Keselowski spoke on his return saying, “I didn’t want to rush back. The team and I made the decision together that if all the rehab went absolutely perfect, we’d be ready like, literally, the day of The Clash.”
He added, “and that seemed super foolish and didn’t give us any time to do any testing on myself or anything like that.”
Keselowski noted that he has six to eight hours of rehab each day; adding that he hopes to have a medical evaluation on February 5 at Charlotte Motor Speedway to obtain medical clearance from NASCAR so that he can return to racing.
Keselowski noted, it’s a really painful thing to break. It’s the biggest bone in your body (femur), which is kind of the bad part about it. The good thing is it’s also one of the fastest healing parts of your body, so I’m just really dealing with the pain and trying to recover as fast as I can.”
He added, “I’ve broken a lot of different bones and parts of my body. mI will tell you, none of them come close to hurting as bad as breaking your femur. It’s a very painful injury, but the recovery is actually fairly similar in time and so forth. So I’ve just got to be tough and get through it. …”
He concluded, “it’s kind of a freak accident. I just fell perfectly on a spot that broke my leg. I wish it was some cooler story than that, like jumping or doing something on the slopes. I think everybody thinks I did it on the slopes, which sounds a lot cooler than the actual story I have, but it just was a freak accident.”
In other NASCAR medical news…
After a horrific accident while racing at a dirt track in Quebec where he broke his right leg – tibia and fibula – and pelvis, left hip, and a C7 fractured vertebra last July, Stewart Friesen announced that he will be returning to his number 52 truck in the Craftsman Truck Series for the 2026 season.
On December 5, Friesen posted a video on social media showing him walking without assistance for the first time in over four months. Friesen had to have his pelvis reconstructed
Speaking on SiriusXM Friesen said, “it’s (recovery) going very well. The last month, I’ve been making some leaps and bounds. No more crutches, no more cane, walking pretty normal and just trying to work out as much as I can. Still doing a lot of physical therapy and anticipating a return at Daytona here in just over a month.”
He added, “I feel great. I’ve done some sim over at TRD in Salisbury, (North Carolina) a few times. I had another session yesterday morning that went really well and really, really looking forward to getting back into action and getting back to normal and getting rolling here to start the season.”
Friesen noted that during his time off he has been reflecting on how he can make his dirt car safer.
He said, “it’s been a long process, but at the end of the day, I’m a racer. It’s what I love to do. I’ve wanted to do this since I was probably eight, nine years old, growing up around a race track and then racing my whole life. It’s just something that we do, and I don’t think I could go through life the same way not being in the seat or not wanting to be in the seat. I feel like I’ve still got a couple more decent years in my prime left before I gotta hang up the Simpsons (seat belts). But right now, that’s the goal — get back to what I love to do and what our family does and go back racing.”
Not only is Friesen ready to climb back into his truck; he plans on getting back behind the wheel of his dirt modified car too.