Keselowski finds driving ‘a blessing and a curse’ during injury recovery

Brad Keselowski is living in a vicious cycle.

The driver of the No. 6 Ford Mustang and co-owner at RFK Racing spends the week going through physical therapy to get to the point where his body, particularly the still-healing right femur, feels good enough for the NASCAR Cup Series race weekend. Behind the wheel, Keselowski feels fine as well and has said it’s where he’s the most comfortable – as any race car driver would.

But as soon as the race is over, Keselowski is in pain again. And that means the rehab process starts all over again for the next race.

“I’ve got some great people around me,” Keselowski said Wednesday. “I’m just jamming in all the PT work with some of the best professionals you could hope to work with, and I’m building stronger every week, but not as fast as I want to. Driving the race car is both a blessing and a curse. It’s a blessing because it provides the motivation for me to really push my rehab and do things faster, which is not a bad thing. It’s a curse because, yes, when I get in the car, it does hurt. It does pull me backward.

“When I have the adrenaline and all those things, I don’t notice it. But when it wears off, yeah, I’ve got to recover from that.”

It’s just shy of three months since Keselowski broke his femur Dec. 18 after slipping on ice. Keselowski was on a ski vacation with his family when he fell and had to go into immediate surgery. The latter was successful, and Keselowski has not missed a NASCAR Cup Series points race, but it hasn’t been easy.

The lefts and rights of COTA were especially difficult for Keselowski, but he gritted the weekend out. James Gilbert/Getty Images

Keselowski made it through the Daytona 500 and a crash on the last lap, feeling no worse for wear. The same week later, at another drafting track, EchoPark Speedway. But the third race, at Circuit of The Americas, was the biggest challenge, with the greater physical toll it takes on a driver, especially with left and right turns. Keselowski, however, gutted it out and forgo turning the seat over to a relief driver.

The event this past weekend at Phoenix Raceway got off to a rocky start when Keselowski hit the wall in practice because of a blown tire. Sunday was a smoother day.

“The long airplane flights to the West Coast and the crash on Saturday were not my friends,” Keselowski said. “So, I’ll spend most of this week trying to get back to where I was before I left for Phoenix and hopefully, by Thursday or Friday, when I leave for Las Vegas, I’ll be ahead of where I was last week. And that’s kind of what my weeks have looked like.

“That’s my world for, hopefully, only a few more months, but a reality nonetheless, and I’m trying to make it all happen.”

Throughout his rehabilitation and physical therapy, Keselowski is having continuous X-rays done to make sure everything is as it should be. So far, nothing has stood out to his care team after four races.

“I’m trying not to be over the top about it, but I’ve got a lot of hardware in my leg that’s holding it together,” Keselowski said. “If that hardware were to come loose, it would be problematic for me at this time. But the surgeons and everyone did such an incredible job that that hasn’t been the case. I’m knocking on wood right here that stays the case and I’ll keep checking.”