Brian Vickers Will Be Cleared To Race Sooner Than Expected

Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports

UPDATE – Vickers will be making his first start of the 2015 season at Las Vegas. The Las Vegas race is the third race of the season which means Vickers will only be missing two events (Daytona and Atlanta).

End of Update–

Brian Vickers has a strong passion for racing. Numerous times throughout his career Vickers hasn’t hesitated to talk about his love for the sport and the passion that comes with that love. Unfortunately, Vickers has been forced to be away from the sport on a few occasions in his career for medical reasons. The most recent of this occasions will come at the start of this season as Vickers is still recovering from heart surgery that he had performed during the off season.

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When the report first broke that Vickers was going to miss time because of the heart surgery the outlook seemed bleak. After having such a surgery and Vickers himself not knowing a timetable for his return many fans and insiders assumed the worst. Luckily for Vickers and the No. 55 team this ended up not being a worst-case scenario and he will be returning to the track sooner than expected.

According to a report on Wednesday from Michael Waltrip Racing, Vickers has been cleared to return to NASCAR in early March. The report goes onto say that Michael Waltrip will drive the No. 55 machine in the Daytona 500 and that MWR will announce a replacement driver shortly there after. One would have to figure that said replacement driver will only be running a couple of races before Vickers is able to return.

On Wednesday Vickers released a statement through MWR.

"The doctors gave me a clean bill of health and said I will be better than before.The advancements in modern medicine and surgical procedures are amazing and I have to thank my doctors at the Sanger Heart & Vascular Institute and Carolinas Medical Center for their extraordinary care. I have literally put my life in their hands twice and I cannot begin to express my level of gratitude. I was not feeling well in December, so I went to see Dr. William Downey in Charlotte. He discovered my body was rejecting a patch that was surgically placed over a hole in my heart a few years ago. He and Dr. R. Mark Stiegel immediately went to work on correcting the problem.Now all of my focus is getting ready so when I return we are prepared to win races and the championship in my Aaron’s Dream Machine."

Although it’s not confirmed it seems likely that Vickers will miss the first three races of the season. NASCAR will most likely be granting Vickers a waiver since the races missed were for a medical ailment. The waiver will mean that Vickers will still be eligible to partake in the chase assuming he is able to win a race or make it in on points.

Christopher Olmstead is the Editor of BeyondTheFlag.com on the FanSided Network. Follow us on Twitter @Beyond_The_Flag and “Like” us on Facebook.