Stock car driver Mark Madrid Jr. (115) had bought his race car just the week before. Then he rolled it during the IMCATV Winter Nationals on Saturday. Nevertheless, Madrid seemed in good spirits.
“I’m racing, so I can’t complain,” Madrid, of Phoenix, Arizona, said. “I’m fortunate to be alive, and more fortunate to be driving again.”
In April 2021 a car fell of its jack and onto Madrid. His head and face were crushed.
(For more on that incident, read “Mark Madrid: Car Falls Off Jack and Crushes His Face”)
“It took me a year to recover, and I couldn’t race,” said Madrid. “Then, I came back slowly. I am thankful for the outpouring of support from the racing community that helped me make my comeback.”
Madrid didn’t have a standout IMCATV Winter Nationals, but he was racing. He’s only advanced to the B features. A 15th on January 11. A 12th on January 17. But, making the B-main made his day, nevertheless.
“The B-main was a great accomplishment for our team,” Madrid said. “I was so happy.”
The B-main started off a bit rough with a slew of spinouts and crashes. Madrid started 13th and worked his way up to seventh. The fourth restart, though, got him.
“I was on the top of turn one, and someone’s car touched the left rear of my car and I started to spin,” said Madrid. “Locked my brakes up because I did not want to spin out in front of the rest of the field. I had it saved, and then a car that never lifted got into me.”
Madrid’s car wound up on top of the car driven by Clay Tillia before it rolled over. Madrid exited the car under his own power. He sat in a Kirkey full-containment seat with a Simpson five-point harness. He wore a Zamp helmet paired with a Simpson Hybrid head-and-neck restraint.
“We were out for the night, but the damage was minimal — a spindle and a shock mount,” Madrid said. “I’m here, and I’ll be back. I was going to put a new body on the car before I raced it, but now I’m actually glad I didn’t.”
Mike Adaskaveg has written hundreds of stories since the website’s inception. This year marks his 54th year of covering auto racing. Adaskaveg got his start working for track photographer Lloyd Burnham at Connecticut’s Stafford Motor Speedway in 1970. Since then, he’s been a columnist, writer, and photographer, in racing and in mainstream media, for several outlets, including the Journal Inquirer, Boston Herald, Stock Car Racing, and Speedway Illustrated. Among Adaskaveg’s many awards are the 1992 Eastern Motorsport Press Association (EMPA) Ace Lane Photographer of the Year and the 2019 National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) George Cunningham Writer of the Year.