HUNTERSVILLE, N.C. -- Kyle Busch said he does not know when he will get back to a race car but hopes he can return by July as he continues to recover from a broken right leg and a broken left foot suffered in a crash Feb. 21 at Daytona International Speedway.
Busch, speaking about his injuries at a news conference Wednesday at Joe Gibbs Racing, said he hit the DIS concrete wall at 90 mph and the G-forces were 90 G's. With his left foot still in a walking boot, Busch said he still has a small crack in the right leg.
"First and foremost, I have to please my doctors," said Busch, who had a rod inserted in his right leg and plates and screws in his left foot the night of the accident. "I have to go step by step and do everything they ask. ... They say my recovery is going faster than they expected but they still won't [tell me when I can return]. I don't even ask. They won't release me a timetable."
In the crash that occurred late in the Xfinity Series opener at Daytona, Busch's car skidded several hundred feet, across a paved entrance at the exit of pit road, the entrance to the infield road course and then across some grass before hitting a concrete wall. Busch said his helmet and chest hit the steering wheel, and the engine and chassis came back into him as he was coming forward.
The engine hit a piece of tubing in the chassis, which hit the gas pedal, which hit the throttle stop back toward him at three inches farther then it would be if he was not on the throttle. The force of it broke his right leg. His left foot, being on the brake pedal, also was broken.
"As I was getting out, I knew my right leg was broken," Busch said. "On my way out, I got stuck. I had to pull it. As I am doing all that, I was thinking, 'I'm done. There's no way I am going to be able to come back from this. This hurts.' ... [Then] the doctors say, 'You're going to be as good as new, you're going to be better than new, you're now going to be stronger, you now are going to have titanium in you, you're going to be a man of steel.'"
The wall was not covered with a SAFER barrier, an energy-absorbing barrier that would have likely lessened the impact on the car and Busch's body in the crash. Several tracks have announced the installation of additional SAFER barriers after Busch's wreck.
"I'm not going to say I'm happy about the wall that I hit not being protected," Busch said. "I can't. That's just not being honest. I was disappointed that that wall was not covered, but I am encouraged by the action the tracks have taken."
Busch said the wreck was his fault. He was trying to push teammate Erik Jones, who ended up spinning. While Jones was spinning, he took the air off the rear of Busch's car, sending him into the skid into the wall.
"The wreck was essentially all my fault," Busch said. "I was being greedy and trying to win the race and trying to push Erik Jones and get ourselves to the front. ... Obviously, I injured myself in the process. A freak deal, the nature of the beast I guess you could say."
When Busch returns, the big question is whether he will be eligible for the Chase. NASCAR has made no decision on whether it will waive the rule that a driver must compete each race weekend in order to be eligible for the Chase for the Sprint Cup. NASCAR also could waive the rule that requires a driver to be eligible with a win and a top-30 finish in the regular-season standings, although it has not waived that rule when issuing past waivers.
Busch said he is hopeful NASCAR would grant him waivers, but he does not know what NASCAR will do. He has to concentrate on getting himself back in a race car. Because NASCAR rules prohibit him from testing a Cup car except at official tests, he will test one of his Late Model cars to see whether he can work the pedals.
Because his recovery still could be delayed by setbacks in the natural healing process, Busch was reluctant to give much of a guess about when he could return. He brakes with his left foot, so he needs the ability to put pressure and work pedals with both feet. He said he can move his right ankle about 80 percent and he can now bend his right knee backward so his right heel can reach his rear.
"The bone growth has been coming along really well. ... It's just what I can do, how much strength I feel like I can have," said Busch, who has surgery scheduled for December to remove the screws and plates in the left foot. "Will I be able to tackle driving a race car a lot sooner than going for a triathlon with Jimmie Johnson? For sure.
"That's just to be seen by the doctors, if I can prove to them and show to them that I can do what they want me to be able to do, they'll release me."
The 29-year-old Busch has 29 victories in 365 career Cup starts. He also has 70 wins in what is now the Xfinity Series and 42 in the Camping World Truck Series. He still plans to compete in races in all three series, but when he returns, his focus will first be on racing Cup events.
The JGR No. 18 team is 12th in the owner standings. Matt Crafton replaced Busch in the Daytona 500, and David Ragan has driven the Busch car since the second race of the season at Atlanta. JGR owner Joe Gibbs has said he would like to put Jones in the car at some point before Busch's return.