Matt Tifft is Ready to Race at Chicagoland Speedway

Photo - Getty Images

Photo – Getty Images

After being diagnosed with a brain tumor, NASCAR driver, Matt Tifft missed several races to undergo surgery. With a positive attitude to a rather scary medical condition, Tifft stayed in touch with fans by posting video updates on Facebook throughout his ordeal. It was inspiring to his fans as much as they inspired him. 

“I had a lot of people reaching out to me and really trying to comfort me through that time,” Tifft said.  “At first I thought it would be good for people to actually see me and actually talk…and just to show that I was okay. But, then after that video it really went around quite a bit and I realized how many people were going through huge operations whether it was brain related or not and I felt like that platform could be used pretty well to show my recovery process.

“But, then the result of that was just a ton of people coming to me saying, ‘Hey, my daughter is going through this,’ or ‘My son is going through this. Can you give a shout out to them,’ or whatever.

“So, that was really neat to see that people were actually connecting with me over that whether they were NASCAR fans or not. Just to see someone going through it and getting better was pretty cool for them to see and I loved working with them on that.”

After testing at Hickory Speedway, a meeting at Bristol Motor Speedway, and with the blessings of his doctors, Tifft is now ready to get back behind the wheel of his No. 11 Red Horse Racing Truck at Chicagoland Speedway on Friday night.

“Obviously we had a meeting at Bristol talking about getting back into a race eventually and so thankful that this is the weekend that we can do it,” says Tifft. “Chicagoland is one of my favorite tracks so I had a lot of fun yesterday. It was really great to be back in the truck, so looking forward to tonight and getting back in my first race.”

Tifft is picking up where he left off with how he feels behind the wheel in testing and the practice sessions he’s had this weekend at Chicagoland.

“I’ve been asked about that a lot this weekend,” says Tifft. “Every time I got in the car it was like everything had been way before. Did a lot of go-karting as well in between and before the late model test. I didn’t feel anything at all that was different and I would not be here this weekend if I did not feel like I was 100 percent and ready to go.”

Tifft is ready to race in the Camping World Truck Series on Friday night and fans can watch the American Ethanol E15 225 on Friday night at 8:30 pm ET on FOX Sports 1.