INDIANAPOLIS — IndyCar driver Stefan Wilson had surgical procedure to restore a fractured vertebrae that he suffered in follow for the Indianapolis 500, and automotive proprietor Don Cusick stated Thursday that he was “in nice spirits and feeling higher.”

Wilson was about midway by a two-hour follow Monday when he was hit from behind by Katherine Legge as they went by Turns 1 and a couple of at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Legge’s automotive hit the wall with the rear, however Wilson was turned practically head-on when he made contact. The protection crew wanted about 10 minutes to take away him from the automotive.

Wilson was taken to Methodist Hospital and underwent surgical procedure Wednesday for a posterior fusion and inside fixation of the fracture. The process took about three hours and it was unclear when Wilson can be launched.

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“When he got here out of the anesthesia,” Cusick stated, “he instructed the surgeon he was dreaming about operating qualifying laps.”

Dreyer & Reinbold Racing, who partnered with Cusick Motorsports for the No. 24 automotive, introduced Tuesday that Graham Rahal would drive it within the 107th operating of the Indy 500 on Sunday. Rahal did not qualify this previous Sunday, when he was bumped from the sector within the last seconds by his Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing teammate Jack Harvey.

Rahal, who will maintain his streak alive by beginning a sixteenth consecutive Indy 500, has had a busy week. He was fitted for his seat and has needed to shortly study the nuances of driving a Chevrolet-powered automotive after spending most of his profession with Honda.

Actually, it took some negotiations between the engine producers — and the sponsors of each Wilson’s crew and his personal — for Rahal to maneuver over from the Rahal Letterman Lanigan storage to Dreyer & Reinbold’s for the race.

Rahal and Legge, whose crew was in a position to restore her broken automotive, have been granted a 15-minute particular session Thursday to make sure their automobiles have been OK. Then they’ll have a last two-hour follow Friday to fine-tune their race setups.

“I really feel for Stefan. I’ve stated that quite a few occasions right here. I really feel for him tremendously as a result of I do understand how a lot this implies to him and the way a lot work he places in year-in and year-out to be right here,” Rahal stated. “That is the reality, in another conditions, I do not assume that it could have excited me as a lot, however being that it was Stef and being that it was a Wilson, and within the state of affairs that it was in, I simply felt prefer it was my calling to leap in and assist.”