During last weekend’s IndyCar race from Detroit, Kyle Kirkwood injured his right hand early in the weekend when he ran head on into a tire barrier on the back part of the course.
The rookie battled through the injury, which turned out to be a heavy sprain with no broken bones, and even took victory in class in the IMSA race that was partnering IndyCar for the weekend.
After running two races on the demanding street course over the course of two days, Kirkwood’s hand was very swollen and very sore.
He was only granted a few days’ rest before the series traveled to Road America, but those few days have allowed his hand to improve greatly from the painful experience he had in Belle Isle.
“A hell of a lot better than last weekend,” Kirkwood told Motorsport Week. “All the swelling is gone, virtually. There’s still a little bit left, but fortunately I feel really fast.
“I was waiting until I got an actual answer what the injury was. Then we realized it’s a stable injury, there’s nothing broken, just bruised bones.
“Pretty much a sprain everything from the wrist all the way up through the hand. All these muscles, everything, it’s just strained pretty bad.
“The team was saying they’d have to find a replacement [driver for Detroit]. I bit the bullet on Sunday because the team was like ‘Should we run someone [else] or should we not?’ And I said if I run practice, I’m running the race.
“I ran practice, and it was diabolical to drive with. I was like ‘I’ve already gotten this far, I’m not going to put someone else in that hasn’t driven in a while straight into a race.’
“That would just be terrible for the team and terrible for them. I didn’t see that being a good situation. I just bit the bullet, and drove through it.
“It was actually a lot better in the race. We dialed down some of the castor and the steering effort with a different steering rack, and it helped a lot.”
Kirkwood had a lot of tape on his wrist and a custom-molded carbon fiber brace was made to help him hold the steering wheel without causing more damage.
Road America has a few long straights as well, giving the rookie a bit of a break behind the wheel as he flies around the 4.05-mile course in the Wisconsin countryside.
So far in the weekend, Kirkwood has not been as high up the order as he would like, but he is relieved to know that his hand will not be a hindrance in the 55-lap race on Sunday.
