#55-Brian Vickers met with the media Sunday morning at Martinsville Speedway: How are you feeling? Vickers: ‘I feel like I could drive a race car, I just cant. I feel great. Still training, still exercising. I cant complain. Ive got a great life and family and friends. Im frustrated and Ive been bummed since obviously all this happened again. Im just kind of looking forward. Things happen in life “ thats part of it. You just keep fighting and have faith. Thats all you can really do. Im going to be out for three months and back in time for Daytona to race for a championship.” Have doctors explained why this happened and how long you will have to deal with it? Vickers: ‘The answer is yes.. After the crash at Bristol, I had a mid-foot sprain and I was wearing a boot to kind of immobilize my right ankle to help with that foot sprain and that boot is what caused the clot. Pretty much right where the boot kind of constricted my calf. We know what caused it. I think the good news for me in both situations “ the first one and this one is that there were specific events “ kind of the perfect storm so to speak that created the clots. Because of that, Ive never spontaneously produced a clot at random. That creates a completely different situation than someone who is just throwing clots all the time randomly. Going forward, pretty much every doctor Ive met with has pretty much had the exact same conclusion, which is three months of anti-coagulation and then youre off. Whether I race or not, whether I decide to go racing or not is kind of irrelevant, the decision would still be the same. What keeps you out of the car? Vickers ‘Its not the clot and its not that I cant race on blood thinners its just that I cant crash. As long as I can promise my doctors that I will not crash then theyre fine with me racing. Unfortunately, theres a lot of moving parts in a car that I cant control and 42 competitors that I cant control. I cant firmly commit to that so he would rather me not race. The risk is not even so much external injury like a cut or something, its really more of an internal injury. They wouldnt be able to stop the bleeding.” (Toyota Racing PR)
