For five days, Joe Duvall has been fighting through a nightmare from a hospital bed, with his wife, Shelley, by his side after a devastating work accident left him severely burned. With limited use of his hands, she became his voice, sharing every little update with the racing community. Now, days into his recovery, the veteran racer has finally broken his silence with a message that was as much for his wife as it was for the fans.

“I don’t know what to really say, the last 5 days of my life have been filled with a lot of pain but at the same time joyful tear,” the veteran racer said on his Facebook account on 30th August. “God was beside me and carried me. I’m thankful that I’ve been able to see Shelley and Addison again. I know you’ve heard two stories of my bypassing pain meds. My wife is the real tough one. I’m sorry this happened, and you’ve had to endure this nightmare.”

The USMTS Modified racer was admitted to the burn unit at a hospital, where doctors have been treating his injuries since. Now the details surrounding the accident have not been made public yet. But his recent statement, do offer a grim picture of how tough the past few days must have been for him.

“I have limited use of my hands for now, but Shelley [his wife] has read them to me,” Duvall further explained in his post. That detail alone shows the severity of his injuries.

Through all those days, his wife has provided much of the information about his recovery. Shelley shared an update explaining that doctors had been able to address several burn spots during surgery. She also revealed that Duvall would need another operation to treat injuries involving his stomach, chest and back.

The second surgery was scheduled for Monday morning. About 12 hours ago, Shelley provided another update on Facebook, explaining that Duvall’s day had started positively before becoming more difficult and then turning positive again.

“Joe’s morning started off good, but the day got rough, but tonight he’s doing good. He will have his 2nd surgery tomorrow morning at 8:30.”

For anyone who knows Duvall from racing, it is hard to picture him in this position. He is much more familiar with a dirt track than a hospital.

In 2009, he captured the Modified Track Championship at Outlaw Motor Speedway before repeating the achievement in 2010. That same year, he also became the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series Oklahoma State Champion. He has continued competing in dirt modified racing with his No. 91 car while also running Duvall Electric, LLC., an electrical contracting company headquartered in Claremore, Oklahoma.

For now, Duval made it clear that he rather not talk about the incident and focus on the recovery now. And it’s easy to understand why, given it’s not easy to come out of such a tragic accident mentally. The racing world sadly has seen much of devasting fire accidents before.

Niki Lauda had suffered severe burns and even lung damage after his 1976 crash and somehow he got back into racing just 42 days later. Rick Mears had suffered severe facial burns in a fire at 1981 Indianapolis 500 before eventually coming back and winning more. Also who can forget about what happened in 2020. 

Romain Grosjean walked out of literal fire after crashing his car at the Bahrain Grand Prix. Neverthless, Duval’s latest update also hinted that the racer in him is already thinking of what comes next.

“But I can guarantee all of you I’m going to pull a tear off, aim for the cushion, and pound it like it owes me money,” he added.

For someone who has spent years racing, Duvall’s latest message showed that the racer in him is still there. The road ahead will be tough, but the No. 91 driver clearly isn’t ready to give up.