Less than a week removed from his last-lap crash at World Wide Technology Raceway, Carson Hocevar appeared on Friday at Sonoma Raceway ready to race.
“I broke my tibia for sure,” Hocevar told SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. “(In surgery) they had to do a screw to basically hold it in on my right ankle.”
That was on Monday. Five days later, he was already behind the wheel and cranking out left- and right-hand turns on the 1.99-mile California circuit.
these pictures are 6 days apart, happy to be back at the track, just like nothing ever happened pic.twitter.com/cNpQA9PqqL
— Carson Hocevar (@CarsonHocevar) June 10, 2022
Hocevar and Daniel Suárez combined to finish seventh in the session, splitting seat time just in case complications arose throughout the weekend.
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“I’m moreso glad that I could get to here today,” Hocevar said. “They (NASCAR Officials) made me put on my suit, helmet, shoes, everything and get in and out a few times. Going through the approval process and luckily I’d done good enough that they approved me for practice for sure.”
However, there is a difference between competing part-time in a 50-minute practice session and handling the full task of a multi-hour race — a race for which Hocevar was indeed cleared for following practice.
Outside of the truck, he labored through the garage on crutches with his foot in a splint.
When asked how he is handling all of the pain and emotion this weekend, Hocevar said, “Adrenaline and everything is the easiest cure for any sort of pain.”
But he also knows there may be repercussions for perseverance in his push for playoff eligibility.
“My only goal is to go as fast as possible,” Hocevar said. “But at the same time, that’s not what the rest of the team or sponsors, everybody wants me to take it easy, and the racer in me just wants to get out there and try to put the biggest lap I can. Our goal is to be at Phoenix (Raceway), and it would be very selfish of me to try to push too hard for one race.”