Stewart Friesen shared a new video showcasing his recovery progress after he was involved in a horrific wreck at Autodrome Drummond during a Super DIRTcar race at the end of July.
The video shared to Friesen’s social media is captioned “Recovery is the race” and shows Friesen engaging in various physical therapy workouts including lifting his legs and cycling on a bicycle while also working with his team in the shop.
The video also features text that reads, “The goal is simple be better than yesterday.”
As noted above Friesen was involved in a horrific wreck at Autodrome Drummond at the end of July.
Friesen recalled the incident in an interview with SiriusXM NASCAR Radio in August, ““I remember we got a really good run off of turn 2. And we’re kind of setup for a longer game in the race tire wise. But the car fired off really good. And I banged the cushion and got a good run off of 2 and got outside of one of the guys there. … And just wasn’t planning on trying to get off the backstretch, but it’s a pretty sharp edge, and didn’t have good line of sight on it. Next thing I know I just dropped the wheel off and got sideways and looking out the right side of the car looking at that concrete wall going, ‘Oh man, this is going to hurt.’ After that, obviously, took a pretty good lick and was just trying to get out of the car after that was kind of the next frame of thought.”
After sharing all the injuries he suffered, which included fracturing and crushing his pelvis, a double fracture on his tibia, and a crack in his C7 vertebrae in his neck, he shared how he’s recovering, “It was really, really tough to start. My wife Jess has been my superhero through all this. She was up in Quebec that early afternoon, the day after it happened and been by my side the past two and a half weeks ever since. I don’t know where I’d be without her because I owe her the world. She’s done everything for me. I really couldn’t move for the first week afterwards. Getting in and out of bed and stuff is really tough. All the normal bodily functions you’ve got to do during the day. We definitely strengthened our bond in marriage throughout this. Like I said, I couldn’t do it without her.”
“Right now, I can move around a little bit. I can get in and out of bed. And in a little wheelchair. Try to get down to the dirt shop as much as I can. I try to get down there for an hour or two each day even if I’m not supposed to, but it’s kind of been breaking things up and keeping us going,” he added.
When he was asked when he might be back in the car or if he wants to return to racing, Friesen responded, “Right now I’m just focused on getting my body back to kind of give me that option. Not thinking super long term. There’s a lot of doctor’s appointments and follow-ups. I’ve been to a couple of them so far and there’s another one of them next week. And then we’re kind of looking four weeks out right now to where I can start doing some physical therapy and stuff like that. Just try to go through this as much as I can and just be tuned into my body and then the doctor stuff and then we’ll go from there as I get some movement back.”
More recently Friesen spoke with FloRacing in September while attending the NASCAR Truck race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. He was asked how PT has been going and when he expects to be back. He answered, “It’s all up in the air. Fighting some weird nerve pain in my foot. And we’re not really out of the dark, I think, on that. Started PT. I’ve had a couple sessions. It’s been pretty tough just trying to get mobility and movement back.”
“But that’s all what it is. I got to say just a big thanks to so many people in the racing industry. My friends, family, everybody that reached out, sent a message or sent something to the house, or any of that just said hello. It’s been pretty overwhelming and it’s made us feel really, really good that so many people in the racing community have our backs and are looking out for us,” he added.
The Halmar Friesen Big Block Modified team with Alex Yankowski behind the wheel of 84Y will be at Orange County Fair Speedway this upcoming weekend with the Short Track Super Series.
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