Meira could miss four months
INDIANAPOLIS -- It could take Vitor Meira four months to recover from injuries sustained during Sunday's Indianapolis 500, and he may not return to his Florida home until later this week.
Series officials said Tuesday that Meira was expected to spend his third consecutive night at Methodist Hospital after breaking two vertebrae in his back. Though he could be released from the Indy hospital Wednesday, Meira may not be cleared for travel until Saturday.
A.J. Foyt, Meira's team owner, moved quickly to replace him in the No. 14 car albeit temporarily. The four-time Indy winner hired former Champ Car points champion Paul Tracy to replace Meira this weekend in Milwaukee.
"Paul Tracy is a hard charger and our type of driver, much like Vitor," Foyt said in a statement. "I believe we can put the right equipment under Paul, and we've both had success there, so I think we can put our heads together and have a good race."
The bigger concern, though, is Meira's health.
He does not need surgery to repair the broken bones but was fitted for a plastic back brace earlier this week. Meira believes he can return to the cockpit in three months, which would give Meira a shot at running in the final three races -- Chicago, Japan and Homestead, Fla.
Meira was part of a frightening scene late in Sunday's race, when he and rookie Raphael Matos locked wheels going into the first turn. The collision sent both cars into the wall, with Meira's flipping on its side. Meira then slid down the track with two wheels on the ground and two above the concrete wall before the car finally flipped back on all four wheels and rolled to a stop.
Indy Racing League spokesman John Griffin said Brian Barnhart, the president of competition and race operations, Terry Angstadt, the series' commercial division president, and Dr. Michael Olinger, the series' medical director, have all visited Meira at the hospital.
"Dr. Olinger will stay in Indianapolis with him until Friday, when he will then meet with Dr. Terry Trammell," Griffin said Tuesday. "He is expected to be cleared to return to his south Florida home as early as Saturday."
Meira's absence opened up a spot for Tracy. The pairing means Foyt, a four-time Indy winner and IndyCar's most outspoken team owner, is working with the series' most outspoken driver.
Tracy made his first start of the season in Sunday's race and finished ninth.
But he is be best known at Indy for the race he lost. Tracy still claims he won in 2002, when race officials nullified his late pass of eventual winner Helio Castroneves because the yellow light had already come on. The race finished under caution, and the decision was upheld through an appeals process that finally ended in July.
Now, Tracy, 40, will have another chance to make a good impression at Milwaukee.
"For me I'm excited to get an opportunity to drive, albeit as a fill-in for Vitor as I know it's a short-term thing," Tracy said. "I haven't told too many people this, but he [Foyt] was one of the guys I modeled myself after. I'm a little rough around the edges like him and I say what I feel, and that's one of the things I've always admired about him."
Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press
