KNOXVILLE, Iowa — Sprint car racer McKenna Haase has been in multiple crashes on the race track, but she said the one at the Knoxville Nationals was her worst. In the middle of the race her sprint car collided with another car and flipped over.
Doctors told Haase that it'll likely be another three weeks before she gets back onto the race track.
“I knew that with how fast I was going, once I started crashing, it was probably going to be pretty big,” Haase said. “I just tried to relax as much as I can.”
The incident left Haase hospitalized with a hole in her lung and bruising on the other.
“It was pretty much a miracle,” she said. “We haven't really mentioned publicly that the helmet got hit but it was pretty incredible.”
Now that she’s been released from the hospital she’s using the extra time to ship out her merch and post about her sponsors on social media.
“There's always work to be done, but we're just kind of in between of figuring out what's left for this year, but also preparing for next year already,” Haase said.
Haase's doctors have ordered her to avoid physical activity for the time being, and she’s worried that’ll put her behind her competitors.
“Anytime you don't do anything for a while, you're just a little bit rusty,” Haase said. “That's the hardest part, is to go out and be competitive against cars that have been racing night after night, week after week, while you've been sitting out.”
Still, she understands that she has to sit it out to allow her body to fully heal.
“You just kind of have to stay positive and just control what you can control, and then just see what happens next,” McKenna said.
As long as her recovery goes according to plan, McKenna hopes to compete in two more races before the end of the year.