NASCAR champion Brad Keselowski admits question marks over whether he'd walk again

NASCAR champion Brad Keselowski has revealed that he had question marks over whether or not he would walk again, never mind drive a race car, during his recent recovery from injury.

The 2012 Cup Series champion underwent surgery in December after breaking his femur while on a skiing trip with his family.

The incident occurred just eight weeks ago, and although Keselowski missed the Clash exhibition last week, he has been determined to race in the Daytona 500, sharing recovery updates on social media ever since.

Brad Keselowski opens up on injury recovery

This week, he was officially cleared to compete in Sunday's Great American Race after a late test at Charlotte Motor Speedway, although he is still walking around with a cane for support.

During Daytona 500 media day, the RFK Racing star and co-owner was asked if he ever had any doubts about making the race, and in response, he revealed just what he has been up against since the accident.

“I’m eight weeks in, and I’ll tell you, until about three to five weeks in, there was a question of if I was gonna walk again, let alone drive a race car," Keselowski explained. "Those were the thoughts that were going through my mind.

"I was confident I was gonna put the work in, and I was gonna own whatever result there was. There was certainly a lot of moments where you’re like, ‘Oooh, this isn’t a layup.’

"About that week four, week five, I made some pretty big steps and progress quite literally, but, again, I didn’t know until I got in the car what it was gonna be. Until you get in a race car going 190 miles an hour, you don’t know. You don’t know how it’s gonna feel.”

Daytona Duels test awaits

Keselowski appeared to hold up okay in qualifying on Wednesday night, finishing 18th out of the 45 drivers who set a lap time.

However, he says the real test will come on Thursday when the first racing action takes place in the Daytona Duels.

“We’ll have the Duel Thursday," he continued on media day. "I felt good enough today to easily do the Duel.

"The Duel is 50 or 60 laps, which is roughly just over a quarter of the race, probably 27-28 percent of the race. It’ll be a tremendous indicator of what I’ll have for Sunday.

"Thankfully, the way this race week works you get these little bites and doses and each one of them is a little more intense, and we can get a good feel for it.”