{"id":467372,"date":"2026-02-11T05:28:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T05:28:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/467372\/"},"modified":"2026-02-11T05:28:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T05:28:08","slug":"keselowski-gets-green-light-for-daytona-500","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/467372\/","title":{"rendered":"Keselowski Gets Green Light for Daytona 500"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brad Keselowski, who broke his leg while snow skiing with his family in December, has been cleared to return to racing for the season opening Daytona 500.<\/p>\n

Keselowski had a medical evaluation and on-track session at Charlotte Motor Speedway February 9 to confirm his readiness for the season. <\/p>\n

Related Story<\/p>\n

\u201cGetting cleared was a huge moment for me,\u201d Keselowski said. \u201cYou put in the work, you trust the process, but until you hear that final \u2018yes\u2019, nothing is guaranteed. \u201cKnowing what Daytona means, and how hard it would have been to miss it, made this moment even bigger.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since the December 18, 2025, snow skiing accident, Keselowski has worked with his medical team and physical therapists to regain strength and mobility. He said the process was about discipline and patience.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were no shortcuts,\u201d Keselowski said. \u201cI had a poster in my workout area that said, \u2018Daytona. Earned not given,\u2019 and that became my mindset every day. The focus was on getting stronger, improving mobility, and making sure I was truly ready to race.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"nascar<\/p>\n

Meg Oliphant\/\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

The approval process required a comprehensive medical evaluation that included an X-ray being taken on January 30. The X-ray showed remarkable healing, providing doctors with the confidence to advance Keselowski to the next phase of clearance. With that benchmark met, attention shifted to competition readiness. During his on-track session at CMS, initiated by RFK Racing, Keselowski proved that he was more than capable of getting behind the wheel of his No. 6 Ford at Daytona. <\/p>\n

\"Lettermark\"<\/p>\n

A North Carolina native, Deb Williams is an award-winning motorsports journalist who is in her fourth decade covering auto racing. In addition to covering the sport for United Press International, she has written motorsports articles for several newspapers, magazines and websites including espnW.com<\/a>, USA Today, and The Charlotte Observer. Her awards include the American Motorsports Media Award of Excellence, two-time National Motorsports Press Association writer of the year, and two-time recipient of the Russ Catlin award. She also has won an award in the North Carolina Press Association\u2019s sports feature category.\u00a0 During her career, Deb has been managing editor of GT Motorsports magazine and was with Winston Cup Scene and NASCAR Winston Cup Scene for 18 years, serving as the publication\u2019s editor for 10 years. In 2024 she was inducted into the NMPA Hall of Fame.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brad Keselowski, who broke his leg while snow skiing with his family in December, has been cleared to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":467373,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,782,190549,784,1642,634,190548,82,183339],"class_list":["post-467372","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-content-type-news","tag-contentid-96943ae7-8a85-4777-a818-2f9355177942","tag-displaytype-standard-article","tag-locale-us","tag-nascar","tag-shorttitle-keselowski-gets-green-light-for-daytona-500","tag-sports","tag-subsection-nascar"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467372","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=467372"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467372\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/467373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=467372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=467372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=467372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}