Larson racing on with broken rib

Kyle Larson will finish the NASCAR season with a lower rib fracture.

The Chip Ganassi Racing driver, who qualified 14th at Martinsville Speedway, said that a recent x-ray revealed the injury, which he suffered in an accident at Talladega Superspeedway on Oct. 14. Larson called that crash one of the hardest hits he’s experienced.

Larson has been cleared to race and said he’ll just have to deal with the pain. He is one of the eight drivers left competing for the championship.

“It still hurts, but we modified my seat quite a bit this week,” said Larson. “I feel actually pretty good in the car this weekend because I think the G forces, don’t really have any here. So, my ribs feel fine here. But maybe at Texas they’ll feel a little worse.

“Just something I’m going to have to deal with the rest of the season. Stinks, but we’ll get through it.”

Larson was at the epicenter of a Big One at Talladega. Image by Lesley Ann Miller / LAT Images)

In the direct path of Alex Bowman spinning back up the racetrack at Talladega, Larson hit the right-side door of Bowman’s car head-on. Larson raced through the pain last weekend in Kansas. Larson believes he may have been injured by the vertical load put on his body upon impact and because the cars were up on the steep banking.

“So, I think something must have made my body get into a weird position, and I hurt my ribs,” he said. “Like I said, we’ve been working on my seatbelts and things like that. You always think you’re tight enough in your seat until something happens, then you realize there’s areas where you know you could do a little better part on your safety stuff. Just working on trying to keep it comfortable in there but also keep everything as safe as could be.”