After Crash, Krieger Itching to Return to Racing Soon

Larry Krieger said he believed he was going to die.

That thought raced through the mind of the 25-year-old Sportsman division driver from Reseda last Saturday after his head snapped violently against his left shoulder in a crash during a practice run at Saugus Speedway. The rear brakes on Krieger’s car locked in a turn and the car spun backward, slamming into a wall.

“I couldn’t feel my feet, I couldn’t feel my hands,” Krieger said. “I thought my neck was broken and I thought that that was it. I honestly thought I was going to die.”

An hour and a half later, Saugus personnel were able to remove Krieger from his car using the Jaws of Life. He was rushed to Henry Mayo Medical Center in Newhall where X-rays revealed that no vertebrae had been broken but that he had suffered severe hyper-extension of his neck muscles.

Krieger had been considered as one of the leading returnees to vie for the Sportsman points championship vacated by two-time defending champion Will Harper, who jumped to the Southwest Tour this year.

Krieger was released Monday and told by a doctor not to race for three months. However, Krieger sought a second opinion from a physical therapist who pronounced his recovery as accelerated and said that he might be back racing in four weeks.

“That would mean I’d miss three races,” Krieger said. “And it would hurt me real bad in the points standings, but I’d still have a chance. It would take me all season, but my sponsor has said he will stick by me, and I can’t tell you how much that helps.”

For now, Krieger is taking a new outlook on life.

“Man, I walked outside of the doctor’s office (Thursday) and it was a beautiful day and I just thought how happy I was to be alive,” he said.