After horrific flip and ejection at Chili Bowl, Ashton Torgerson makes incredible recovery

Three days after one of the worst wrecks fans have seen in a long time, the 16-year-old driver walked into the media center Saturday

Just three days after a violent flip that ended with his being ejected from his midget while running in the Wednesday Night preliminary feature, Ashton Torgerson walked into the Chili Bowl Media Center on Saturday afternoon.

His father, Danny Torgerson, joined him at the front of the room and both gave their opening statement. The senior Torgerson spoke emotionally about his fears and relief through the last few days.

“You don’t realize how much the prayers mean until something like this happens,” Danny said with teary eyes. “I could say thank you for every hour of the rest of my life and it still wouldn’t be enough.

“I told myself I wouldn’t get emotional (but ) thank you to everyone. Being able to sit next to my son today is beyond amazing, compared to what I expected Wednesday night.”

Danny then turned to his 16-year-old son and said, “I love you very much.”

“I love you too,” Ashton replied.

When it was Ashton’s turn to speak, the high school student whose spill gave the most seasoned of dirt track racers and fans a scare, talked calmly and collected.

“I can’t thank everyone enough for their thoughts and prayers," Ashton said, "I’m sorry for the scare there Wednesday night."

Torgerson doesn’t remember anything after the drop of the green flag, where he started on the outside pole in what not only was his first attempt at the Chili Bowl, but it was also his first day wheeling a midget.

“Obviously I was in a very bad wreck,” said Ashton, still sporting bruises on his face. “The next thing I can remember is a tiny bit of the ambulance and then I got to the hospital and they were checking me out and asking me 'What hurts?’

"I told them really just my head and my face. They started checking my body, my back, my neck and everything seemed good there. I was shocked, I heard the wreck was pretty bad. I haven’t seen it yet, not sure if I want to. I’m still trying to just get better.”

Thoughts on his Performance

Ashton took to the midget like a duck to water, but when he wound up in the wrong place, he hit the outside wall and then barrel rolled several times, with his helmet coming off on one flip, with Ashton's body following, ejected on the next flip.

“Just making the prelim A would’ve been cool for me and I started on the outside pole," he said. "I was second in points there and doing pretty good, so I asked (when he got to the hospital) where I was running (at the time of the crash).”

Photo courtesy Torgerson Racing official Twitter page

This was shared by the Torgerson family earlier in the week and in kismet fashion, Ashton joined the press core as the E-mains were running -- which would’ve been Ashton’s race if he was cleared to race.

“I didn’t know that would be my race there” Torgerson looked towards the FloRacing monitor and responded when told.

If it wasn’t clear that the kid wanted to race it would be later on in the interview when his dad shared what his second question upon waking up was.

“Not more than 15 minutes later, it was, ‘Are they going to have my car ready for Saturday?’” Danny shared that his son's mind was still on the event and responded, “No.”

Competitor Support

While in the hospital Torgerson was visited by Rico Abreu, who went on to win the feature and Kevin Thomas Jr. who was racing nearby at the time of the incident. It was clear during both his victory lane interview and press conference that Abreu’s mind was already in the hospital with Torgerson.

“You just feel gutted,” Abreu said during the Wednesday night podium press conference. “All I’ve been thinking about the last hour or so here is making sure that boy’s okay. I’ve gotten to know Torgerson over the last few months racing in California. He’s a pretty humble kid, and I just hope God prays for him. I know God’s going to pray for him and he’s going to have a good recovery schedule.”

In Victory Lane, Abreu pledged to help the family get through this difficult time, and those words were not hollow, as after he set the record for most preliminary night feature wins in Chili Bowl annals, Abreu headed to the hospital.

“Rico is such a good guy,” Torgerson said, “I was laying there and he walked in and kept asking, ‘How is he? How’s he doing?’ He set the trophy on the table and he said that the trophy was for me. That just means a lot.

"Rico didn’t have to do any of that. He’s such a great guy to be able to come there that quick and to be thinking of me and to bring me the trophy, it really means a lot.”

Moving forward and dissecting the incident

Torgerson’s father praised the response of the event staff and everyone involved in the care of his son.

“I think if this situation happened anywhere else, there certainly could have been a different outcome," Danny Torgerson said. "By the time I got to the track -- I’m not a marathon runner, but I ran pretty quick -- they were already getting the suit off him and attending to him. I literally don’t think they could’ve done anything any better, each and every one of them.”

There remains questions about how the incident happened, but the answer is still no one knows. Danny Torgerson is focused on the recovery of his son first and foremost.

“My number one priority is dealing with everything here," the elder Torgerson said. "We know that when he went out the belts were tight, he remembers cinching them down on the track. Racing is dangerous, and sometimes unfortunately, things happen and I think if anyone says they know what happened, it’s 100 percent speculation and guesswork.

"I’ll be honest I’m not 100 percent concerned about that right now. I’m happy that he’s here, there will be time to take a better look at it and what happened. I would never want that to happen to him or anybody. So we definitely will be working on trying to recreate him in the car and see if there was anything that could’ve popped the belts, to try and get some answers because we do need those answers.”

The fact is, something went wrong, that shouldn’t have. A 16-year-old kid got disconnected from his straps, was ejected and it’s everyone's responsibility to figure out what happened so it doesn't happen again.

When the worst happened, so many things had to go right for Ashton to walk away with zero broken bones, no sign of concussion, and most importantly, his life.

But a lot of these questions can wait as the sport celebrates the miraculous recovery of a young driver.