Kyle Busch taken to N.C. hospital
— -- Kyle Busch has been transferred from Halifax Health Medical Center in Daytona Beach, Florida, to a Charlotte-area hospital for treatment of a broken right leg and broken left foot suffered Saturday at Daytona International Speedway.
Busch's wife, Samantha, tweeted a photo of Busch smiling from a stretcher while being loaded into a plane Tuesday in Daytona.
A Joe Gibbs Racing team spokesman confirmed that Busch would continue treatment in North Carolina.
JGR has not released a timetable for how long Busch will need to recover. He will be treated by Dr. Robert Anderson, who also serves as a team doctor for the NFL's Carolina Panthers.
Busch had surgery on a compound fracture of his right leg Saturday night after his car slammed head-on into a concrete wall near the inside of Turn 1 during the Xfinity Series race at Daytona. The wall was not protected by any energy-absorbing barrier.
Sprint Cup veteran David Ragan will replace Busch for the next several weeks, the team announced in a news release Tuesday night, and will then return to Front Row Motorsports after he is done with the substitute role. JGR development driver Erik Jones will replace Busch in the No. 54 Xfinity Series car this weekend, with a replacement for future races in that series still to be determined.
"We appreciate being able to work with Front Row Motorsports and [sponsor] CSX for David's availability," JGR co-owner Joe Gibbs said in a news release. "We are fortunate to be able to have someone of David's caliber behind the wheel while Kyle recovers."
Ragan has two career Cup wins in 291 career starts. He spent his first five seasons at Roush Fenway Racing. He has driven for the underfunded Front Row Motorsports since 2012.
Jones, a JGR development driver who competes in the Camping World Truck Series for Busch and also was scheduled to compete in several Xfinity races for JGR this year, has four wins in 18 career truck starts and a career best of sixth in four Xfinity starts.
Toyota sponsors Jones' truck and thinks highly of the driver, who doesn't turn 19 until May. Busch hired Jones to drive his truck part-time two years ago after Jones held off Busch to win the late-model showcase Snowball Derby in December 2012.
Jones competed in both the truck and Xfinity races at Daytona, finishing second in the trucks and 18th in the Xfinity race after being involved in the same accident in which Busch suffered his injury.
Matt Crafton filled in for Busch for the Daytona 500. The two-time truck champion finished 18th in his Cup debut.
Related Stories
ABC News Live