NASCAR star Brad Keselowski driving through the pain as brutal injury truth revealed

NASCAR Cup Series star Brad Keselowski has opened up on the brutal reality of continuing to race during his recovery from surgery.

During the offseason, Keselowski went on a family skiing trip, but after slipping and falling on some ice, he ended up in the hospital requiring emergency surgery after breaking his femur.

The RFK Racing driver and co-owner's accident happened just eight weeks before the Daytona 500, but remarkably, he was back in the No. 6 Ford for the Great American Race, and has remained there since.

However, it's by no means an easy feat to do so. Keselowski continues to walk with a cane for assistance, and he has now revealed that continuing to race is causing him a lot of pain and setting back his recovery.

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Brad Keselowski reveals he's driving in pain

“A lot of PT (physical therapy)," Keselowski told Oval Insider and other media when asked how he is preparing himself for each and every week for the races.

"I’ve got some great people around me. I actually just came from there to here. That’s why it took me a minute to get on the call. 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 a blessing and a curse," Keselowski continued. "It’s a blessing because it provides the motivation for me to really push my rehab and do things faster than normal, which is not a bad thing.

"But it’s a curse because, yes, when I get in the car, it does hurt, it does pull me backwards. When I have the adrenaline and all those things, I don’t really notice it, but when it wears off, yeah, I’ve got to recover from that.

"The long airplane flights to the west coast and the crash on Saturday were not my friends, 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 before I leave for Vegas, I’ll be ahead of where I was last week and that’s kind of what my weeks have looked like.

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

Will Keselowski require more surgery?

During the call, Keselowski was also asked whether or not he would require any further procedures or surgery on the leg moving forward.

The 2012 Cup Series champion revealed he is having regular checks, but so far, so good.

“I keep having X-rays. 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, and if that hardware were to come loose, it would be problematic for me at this time," Keselowski revealed.

"The surgeons and everybody that did it did such an incredible job that that hasn’t been the case.

"I’m knocking on the wood right here that it stays that way, and I’ll keep checking.”