ROANOKE, VA :: Preston McGhee ran his first race of the season after breaking his leg earlier this year. McGhee’s first race back resulted in a fourth place finish last Friday night.
McGhee, who is the reigning Motor Mile Speedway Limited Sportsman track champion, spoke about the road back and about the injuries three-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Champion Tony Stewart sustained in a Sprint Car crash at Southern Iowa Speedway on Monday night. McGhee broke his tibia and fibula and his ankle bone earlier this year after falling down some steps. Stewart’s injuries consist of a broken tibia and fibula as well.
“We came up there for the first race, sat on the pole and the race was rained out and then, on May 10th, I broke my leg in three places,” McGhee said.
The injury kept him out of his car for over two months. He planned to return to the circuit on July 20th but Mother Nature had other plans.
“We were going to come back for the July 20th race and it got rained out,” McGhee remarked. “July 20th was pushing it to get back. I was still in a lot of pain, wasn’t really ready but I didn’t want to stay out of the racecar.”
McGhee spoke about his injuries, the road back and offered insight in to Tony Stewart’s injuries.
“I had to same injury as Tony Stewart but from what I heard, mine was more severe,” McGhee explained. “We both broke our tibia and fibula but I also broke an ankle bone as well. I’ve got five screws in my ankle holding it back together. Those sprint cars are the one thing I probably wouldn’t race. I’m a big guy anyways so it’d be hard to get in those things but they wreck so often. I was in a cast for six weeks and couldn’t think about walking. It was two weeks after I got out of it before I could truly walk. I’m ten weeks out of surgery and still deal with pain. It hurt to race on Friday. It wasn’t terrible but I was really sore on Saturday.
“We’re racers, we’re not smart. We’ll get back in the car when we shouldn’t, I’m sure Tony will do the same thing.”
With a second straight championship out of the equation, McGhee’s expectations are simple: Drive fast, have fun and win races.“My expectations are to have fun and to win a race. We’re closer than we’ve ever been to winning a race and I feel like we’ll win one or two. We’re not worried about points so we’ll have fun and try to get the win.”
McGhee also spoke about how he got interested in racing and how he got started.
“I’ve always been interested in racing,” McGhee commented. “I got to help on a Street Stock team back in 2004 and in 2005, the guy asked if I wanted to take a lap. I got in it and was faster than the guy who was driving it so they let me drive. I helped Mike Looney that year as well and been helping him ever since. Two years ago, Mike gave me an opportunity to race one of his cars with a limited motor, the right front broke and destroyed that car in qualifying so I bought my own car and ran three races in 2011. Then we came back and won a championship last year. I’ve only run 15 races in a Late Model type car. I feel like I do pretty well.”
McGhee won the Limited Sportsman championship at Motor Mile Speedway in 2012 despite not winning a race all season. His next race will be on Saturday, August 10th in the Limited Sportsman division at Motor Mile Speedway. McGhee is supported by Ginger’s Jewelry, O’Charley’s of Christiansburg and 81 Designs.
