Keith Rocco Hoping To Be Back Racing In Whelen Modified Tour Event Friday At Stafford Speedway

Keith Rocco will meet with doctors at the UConn Health Center in Farmington before moving forward with any corrective surgery to repair a left wrist injury he sustained Sunday afternoon in a crash at Thompson International Speedway.

Keith Rocco

Rocco spent most of Sunday afternoon and evening at Day Kimball Hospital in Putnam after crashing during an SK Modified division practice just after noon Sunday at Thompson.

Rocco’s wrist was dislocated, causing a trauma with the radial bone, which extends from the elbow to the wrist. It left Rocco with a fractured radial bone, a commonly seen fracture after a wrist dislocation.

Doctors at Day Kimball Hospital suggested surgery as soon as possible to insert a plate and screws in place within the wrist.

Rocco had the wrist reset and a soft cast placed on it, but decided to consult with physicians at the UConn Health Center in Farmington before any surgery. When he sustained a dislocated left shoulder in a crash last year at Stafford Motor Speedway, Rocco had surgery done through the UConn Health Center.

“I’m going to talk tomorrow with the guy that dealt with my shoulder and he’s really good,” Rocco said Sunday evening. “It seems like all the freak stuff happens to me. The second time in two years that something completely freak happens to me. I didn’t even bang the car up that bad and I’m sitting in the hospital.”

Asked if he was already plotting ways to get back behind the wheel as soon as possible Rocco said: “Pretty much yeah.”

The crash happened just after practice began Sunday at Thompson.

“The left rear went flat,” Rocco said. “I’m pretty sure I cut it somehow. There was no signs, nothing. Whether I ran something over or what, I don’t know. Maybe a valve stem got ripped off, I don’t know. Just a freak accident. When I spun around I barely grazed the wall, but the wall definitely grabbed the right front and spun the wheel all the way to one way and I got it pretty good.”

As far as getting back behind the wheel, Rocco has Friday’s NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour event at Stafford targeted. Rocco is in his first year competing full-time in the series for Boehler Racing.

Rocco competes full-time in the SK Modified divisions at Thompson, Stafford and the Waterford Speedbowl in addition to running the Whelen Modified Tour. He won his first Whelen All-American Series short track national championship in 2010, is currently second in the Whelen All-American Series national standings.

Rocco said he is not counting on competing in the open Tour Type Modified event Wednesday at Seekonk (Mass.) Speedway or the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series weekly racing show Thursday at Thompson.

“But don’t count me out for Friday,” Rocco said. “I did it when I had the dislocated shoulder. I really couldn’t do too much with what I had but I managed to make it work.”

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