NASCAR driver faces ‘long road to recovery’ after head-on collision with

Chris Hacker’s trek to Daytona for the weekend was cut short when he was hit head-on by a semi-truck in Columbia, South Carolina back on Wednesday.

The 24-year-old NASCAR driver survived and has even been in good spirits judging from the posts he has shared to X, formerly Twitter, in the days since.

But if the fact his Mustang was hit head-on by a semi-truck didn’t convey how big of a bullet he dodged, a medical update he shared to his X account should do the trick.

A post from NASCAR manager Nathan Blasdell, which he reposted, said Hacker had multiple thoracic fractures in his spine, a ruptured spleen, a collapsed lung, a lacerated kidney, a lacerated adrenal gland and internal bleeding.

His spleen was reportedly removed, and Blasdell said there is still a long road to recovery head.

Hacker also posted on X Sunday that he had the tube removed from his throat and was finally able to eat for the first time since the wreck.

“A semi-truck crossed the center line and hit Chris’s Mustang head on,” a statement posted to Hacker’s X account said last week. “He was transported to Prisma Health Medical Center in Columbia, South Carolina where he underwent emergency surgery. Although a CT scan showed numerous injuries, he’s now in stable condition and is expected to have a full recovery.”

Hacker is a part-time driver in the Craftsman Truck Series and the Xfinity Series.