Hamilton has surgery after Texas crash

Monday, June 11, 2001 | 9:55 a.m.

Las Vegas resident Davey Hamilton suffered potential career-ending leg and foot injuries in a crash during Saturday night's Indy Racing League event at Texas Motor Speedway.

Hamilton, who turns 39 on Wednesday, sustained fractures to both legs and feet when his car collided with Jeret Schroeder's on Lap 73 of the 200-lap race.

Hamilton underwent surgery early Sunday morning in Dallas to stabilize a badly crushed left foot. He was airlifted to Indianapolis Sunday afternoon where he had additional surgery Sunday night in an attempt to restore circulation in the foot.

"He had a large amount of damage to his left foot and shin -- that's the worst of it -- and his right foot is pretty bad, too, but the left is (the doctors') major concern," Sam Schmidt, Hamilton's car owner, said.

"They wanted to get him up to Indy to have all the guys do the (surgery) who are used to working on racecar drivers. The doctor told me (Sunday) night that's it's just day-by-day."

Schmidt, who lives in Henderson and is a longtime friend of Hamilton's, said Hamilton likely would undergo multiple surgeries throughout the week in an attempt to restore circulation and reconstruct the foot.

The injuries Hamilton sustained are eerily similar to those Schmidt suffered in a crash at Texas Motor Speedway in October, 1999. Schmidt was left paralyzed from the chest down in a testing accident in Orlando the following January.

"Davey's (foot injuries) are worse," Schmidt said. "The first thing he hit after he got spun around was the chain-link fence. It was a ferocious side rip and it tore the front end off the car and his feet got caught up in the stuff on the way out.

"The good news is that everything else checked out OK -- there are no back or neck injuries or head injuries ... it's really just his feet which, thank God, can be repaired."

Schmidt said the doctors in Indianapolis told him it would be "a couple of weeks" before they knew whether Hamilton would make a full recovery.

"It has been a long day," Schmidt said after returning to Henderson Sunday night. "My relationship with Davey goes back a lot further than racing ... and it's a lot more than an owner/driver relationship.

"It's difficult ... I don't like seeing someone get hurt driving my car. I had a hard time in his (hospital) room today because, unfortunately, I was about the only one in the room who knew exactly what he's going through."

Schmidt said he would make a decision later this week whether he will field a car in Sunday's Radisson Indy 200 at Pikes Peak International Raceway. Hamilton, the only driver to start all 48 IRL events since the series' inception in 1996, had been driving for Schmidt since March.

IRL driver Robby McGehee also underwent surgery early Sunday morning in Dallas to repair a broken lower left leg suffered in a separate accident Saturday night.

McGehee was involved in a three-car accident on Lap 196 of the race.