Kyle Busch breaks right leg, left foot in crash; out indefinitely

Associated Press

DAYtona beach, fla.

Kyle Busch broke his right leg and left foot in a vicious hit Saturday into a concrete wall during the Xfinity Series race. He’ll miss the Daytona 500 today and is out indefinitely.

Busch sustained a right lower leg compound fracture and left mid-foot fracture in the crash with eight laps to go. Joe Gibbs Racing said he was undergoing surgery on his right leg.

Matt Crafton, a two-time Truck Series champion, will replace Busch in the No. 18 Toyota today in the season-opening Sprint Cup Series race. It will be Crafton’s Daytona 500 debut.

Busch’s injury occurred when his car slammed head-on into an interior wall that did not have an energy-absorbing SAFER barrier. It’s a similar injury to the one suffered by Tony Stewart in an August 2013 sprint car crash, but not as severe as Stewart’s was a double compound fracture.

Stewart missed the final 15 races of 2013, couldn’t get in a race car until February, 2014, and underwent a fourth surgery in December to replace the rod in his leg. He walked with a limp for more than a year.

A somber Joie Chitwood, president of Daytona International Speedway, said the track failed in not having the soft walls and will start next week on having them installed “on every inch of our property.”

“The Daytona International Speedway did not live up to its responsibility today. We should have had SAFER barrier there,” Chitwood said. “We’re going to fix that. We’re going to fix that right now.”

Track officials will install tire packs along that 850-foot linear square foot of wall that Busch hit in time for the Daytona 500. Chitwood said planning on covering the entire 2.5-mile facility would begin Monday.