TriStar's Kerr will tough out Bristol after car falls on him

If Frankie Kerr wanted to miss Saturday night's race at Bristol Motor Speedway, he'd have one crazy excuse: The No. 72 TriStar Motorsports Chevrolet fell on him during practice. But he never even thought about missing the race.

In fact, Kerr wanted to return to the track for qualifying Friday night but his daughter didn't allow him to. Kerr, crew chief for Cole Whitt, suffered a bruised sternum, ribs and a broken right scapula when the car landed on him early in the day Friday.

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"We were 20-25 minutes to go in practice making a change and the left side of the car went up in the air, they were getting the jack stand under there and I thought it was under by then," said Kerr.

"But they had to hit the jack again to get [the car] up and the jack rolled and the car landed on top of me."

In a lighthearted moment, Kerr laughed while describing how a sharp pain he had felt in his back was because his radio clip was still on his belt and digging into his back.

"He's a tough old bird, that's for sure," Whitt said. "I texted him last night to check on him and I knew he wanted to come back even for qualifying and I said, dude, you just need to either chill or lay down. I was like, you're one of the toughest people I know."

Wearing a sling, Kerr said there is nothing that can be done for his injuries except "endure the pain," keep still and go on. And although he's sore, Kerr will perform his duties during the 500-lap race Saturday night.

"All these things that we're talking about I've broke before," said Kerr, who used to race sprint cars. "But as a team, we need to learn from it and I hope other teams learn from it also. Accidents can happen in a hurry."