NASCAR star Brad Keselowski will miss next month's season-opening exhibition Clash, as he continues his recovery from a broken leg.
The veteran driver suffered the injury from a fall on ice when getting out of his vehicle on a skiing trip on December 18, undergoing emergency surgery at a hospital in Boone, N.C.
He told Fox Sports' Bob Pockrass that RFK reserve Cup Series driver Corey LaJoie will step in at Bowman Gray Stadium, and will back up the one-time champion at the Daytona 500 if need be – although Keselowski insists he'll return by then.
The current plan is for the No. 6 car driver to run a medical evaluation test on February 5 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, which is allowed under NASCAR rules to prove a driver's readiness to a doctor.
Keselowski: My leg is made of titanium now
"I didn't want to rush back," Keselowski said. "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.
"And that seemed super foolish and didn't give us any time to do any testing on myself or anything like that."
On his replacement for the Clash, he added: "I'm really proud of the team of people I have doing the rehab and the race team is working really hard. I'm happy for Corey to get this opportunity. I can't wait to see what he does with it. I'm ready to get back to Daytona. ... This is a minor setback."
"I'm not great," he admitted, "but I'm good. I'm recovering really well. I had a major injury. I'm on a significant rehab plan to be back for the Daytona 500. ... I'm now made of titanium in my leg.
"It's a really painful thing to break. It's the biggest bone in your body, 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."
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