Injured Meira released from hospital

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - Injured IndyCar driver Vitor Meira was released from the hospital Wednesday morning. He suffered a broken back in a wild wreck Sunday during the Indy 500.

Meira spoke of his memory of the wreck and his road to recovery ahead.

Vitor Meira took a Wednesday morning ride out of Methodist that's much calmer than the ride that put him in the hospital.

"It's the first time I've crashed hard," said Meira.

The impact of this late-race, first-turn tangle cracked two bones in Meira's back.

He talked about what is was like as his car took an odd, long crawl along the wall, "While the car was sliding backwards, I started using my arms and legs, just to see if everything was working."

"Accidents always hurt. This one hurt a little more," he tsaid.

Meira has seen the replays many times, "It's everywhere!"

"Maybe I turned in too late. Maybe Raphael turned in too early. Who's to say," Meira said of the accident. "Next day on Monday morning Raphael was here. We spoke about it. And that's what counts really. Because mistakes are gong to happen on the track. It doesn't matter whose is it."

Meira says he has no scars from Sunday's other scare, the pit fire that left him sitting in flames, "At that point I could see fire on my hands a little bit and my arms. But I knew that water was just coming. Soon as they put the water, I asked them to put steering wheel back. Actually everything happened pretty fast. We didn't even get lapped."

Meira expects his back to keep him out of his logo-covered driver's suit for four months. Until then he's in a body brace bearing a single, hand-lettered message from his stepdaughter who drew hearts over the fractures.

"I still need help to lay back in bed. I can't really stay or walk for a long time. It's still hurting and I have tingling in my leg a little bit," said Meira.

"It doesn't matter if it's a driver or somebody falls off a bike or a stair. If you break your back, it's not very simple," he said. "It has to heal completely just in case I crash again."

Meira hopes to return to the cockpit in four months, "The last race in October, in Miami. I want to shoot for that."

He is determined to get back in the driver's seat, "It doesn't matter, honestly. I'm gonna be back driving a car. That's what I do. I don't know how (else) to do it. I don't see myself doing anything else,"

For now, he's a passenger in a Honda who cannot wait to pilot a much faster one, soon.

Meira's team hired a replacement driver for this weekend's race in Milwaukee. Paul Tracy will drive the number 14 A.J Foyt car.