Following a two-month layoff to recover from soft tissue damage and slight muscle tears in his neck suffered in a Feb. 26 crash at Ocala (Fla.) Speedway, Tyler Bruening is back behind the wheel.
The Decorah, Iowa, native returned April 28 at Independence (Iowa) Speedway and made his fifth start since his comeback Saturday at Fairbury Speedway. While Bruening admits he still “isn’t quite 100 percent,” he says he’s “definitely well enough to race.”
“It’s been a slow, long road for the neck deal,” the 40-year-old Bruening said. “It’s still a little grindy and crunchy and clicky and cracky, and all that stuff you don’t want.”
Bruening said the wear-and-tear from his football days at Loras College — where he played defensive end and punter — combined with a hard crash last September at Knoxville (Iowa) Raceway have also lingered physically.
“For a college player, I was relatively small, but my quickness working the edge playing defense was my specialty, but that just takes a toll on your body,” Bruening said. “You’re going against guys that are 300-plus pounds, and it just takes a toll on you.
“That’s what I meant when I wasn't quite 100 percent to begin with. You tweak something 20 years ago, and as you start to mature and age, those things start to kind of come back to the surface a little bit.”
Bruening and Skyline Motorsports are also still working through lingering problems from their Ocala heat race crash, which heavily damaged their relatively new AK Race Car. After last weekend’s Dairyland Showdown at Mississippi Thunder Speedway, the team discovered the Austin Kirkpatrick-built chassis needed additional repairs, therefore shipping it back to the Charlotte, N.C., builder.
At Fairbury on Saturday, Bruening unloaded the team’s Longhorn Chassis backup car.
“I still think we’re dealing with some nagging stuff with the race cars from Speedweeks from wrecking, getting in the wall and that kind of stuff,” Bruening said. “I think we’ve been battling a car issue a little bit there.”
Bruening isn’t planning to ease back into competition, either. After a five-race stretch that included last weekend’s three-night Dairyland Showdown — where he qualified for one feature and finished 13th Thursday — a demanding stretch awaits.
He plans to compete in all three Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series events May 14-16 at Eagle Raceway before the May 21-23 Show-Me 100 at Lucas Oil Speedway. A World of Outlaws weekend May 29-30 at Mansfield Motor Speedway is also on the schedule ahead of the June 3-6 Dirt Late Model Dream at Eldora Speedway.
“We’ll just take it weekend by weekend and see how it goes,” Bruening said.