Seventeen days after his private jet crashed Jack Roush was back where he wanted to be, at a race track.
Wearing large sunglasses to protect his eyes Roush came to Michigan International Speedway with his trademark straw hat, stop watch and radio to help guide his Roush Fenway Racing team.
"I've been extraordinarily lucky to have been able to survive and I feel in some ways unworthy. I'm not sure I've done enough yet for the chances that I've had," Roush said.
He has lost his left eye and described his injuries "I had a damaged left cheek. I had a broken jaw and I had a compression fracture in my back and I've got a back brace for the compression fracture. I have hardware in my cheek."
From his television interviews he appeared vigorous notwithstanding his recent ordeal.
About his incident he explained that he filed a mandatory report with federal officials, but, added "-- on a trip arrival into Oshkosh, Wisconsin I was put in conflict with the flight plan of another airplane close to the ground, and I was unable to address the conflict and keep the airplane flying. I ground-looped the airplane."
Roush was pretty sure that he will continue to fly, "I think it's very likely that I'll be able to fly. I've got to get recovered. I have to go through my recovery. Wiley Post was a one-eyed pilot and there's no restriction. Maybe if you're an airline pilot you can't have one eye, but there's not a reason why I can't fly with one eye."
He wanted to emphasize that his organization will survive when he said "Roush Fenway Racing will out-live me, and it will out-live anybody else that is with the company today. We've got the plans in place for that.
This was a little test case. How can you do without Jack? “Well it's bigger than me. It's bigger than anybody. The organization has been very strong and we're peaking at the right time of our year. We're approaching the Chase here, with I think there's four races including this one left, and so if we don't have a mechanical error and miss a wreck, we have a good chance to put three cars in the Chase."
Wearing large sunglasses to protect his eyes Roush came to Michigan International Speedway with his trademark straw hat, stop watch and radio to help guide his Roush Fenway Racing team.
"I've been extraordinarily lucky to have been able to survive and I feel in some ways unworthy. I'm not sure I've done enough yet for the chances that I've had," Roush said.
He has lost his left eye and described his injuries "I had a damaged left cheek. I had a broken jaw and I had a compression fracture in my back and I've got a back brace for the compression fracture. I have hardware in my cheek."
From his television interviews he appeared vigorous notwithstanding his recent ordeal.
About his incident he explained that he filed a mandatory report with federal officials, but, added "-- on a trip arrival into Oshkosh, Wisconsin I was put in conflict with the flight plan of another airplane close to the ground, and I was unable to address the conflict and keep the airplane flying. I ground-looped the airplane."
Roush was pretty sure that he will continue to fly, "I think it's very likely that I'll be able to fly. I've got to get recovered. I have to go through my recovery. Wiley Post was a one-eyed pilot and there's no restriction. Maybe if you're an airline pilot you can't have one eye, but there's not a reason why I can't fly with one eye."
He wanted to emphasize that his organization will survive when he said "Roush Fenway Racing will out-live me, and it will out-live anybody else that is with the company today. We've got the plans in place for that.
This was a little test case. How can you do without Jack? “Well it's bigger than me. It's bigger than anybody. The organization has been very strong and we're peaking at the right time of our year. We're approaching the Chase here, with I think there's four races including this one left, and so if we don't have a mechanical error and miss a wreck, we have a good chance to put three cars in the Chase."