Soon-to-be NASCAR Hall of Famer Red Farmer has been battling COVID-19, according to a Facebook post from Rick Karle of NBC affiliate WVTM in Birmingham, Ala. Farmer has been selected to be inducted in to the NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2021.
Farmer, who turns 89 next month, has returned to his Hueytown, Ala., home after spending five days in Grandview Hospital in Birmingham, Ala., experiencing symptoms including weakness, a 104 degree Fahrenheit fever, and blood pressure over 200. Pre-existing kidney issues also caused concern, according to Karle’s report.
“I felt like a truck ran over me and, then, drove in reverse and ran over me again,” Farmer said, as quoted by Karle. “The doctors at Grandview told me if I went in a day later, I may not have made it. Those doctors and nurses saved my life.”
Farmer’s 14-day quarantine will end this weekend, and he already has plans to work on a car at the Talladega Short Track.
“If I get some rest, I can go out to the Talladega Short Track this weekend to work on a car,” Farmer said. “Then, next weekend, I can drive my car, and, then, I can drive in two races on Talladega weekend in early October.”
Farmer, a stock-car racing legend and member of the famed “Alabama Gang,” already is a member of two hall of fames, the National Dirt Late Model Hall of Fame and the International Motorsports Hall of Fame. His accomplishments also include three-consecutive NASCAR Late Model Sportsman Division championships between 1969 and 1971 and the 1956 NASCAR NASCAR Modified championship.
In 1998, in celebration of its 50th anniversary, NASCAR compiled a list of its 50 Greatest Drivers of all-time, and that list included Farmer.
Farmer contested 36 races in NASCAR’s top series between 1953 and 1975, resulting in two top-five finishes — both fourth-place showings in Macon, Ga., and at Talladega Superspeedway.
