Mills Recovered & Focused Forward After Miami Shunt

Matt Mills (John Harrelson/Nigel Kinrade Photography)

MARTINSVILLE, Va. – From the moment he stepped out of his hauler Friday morning at Martinsville Speedway to meet the media, it was clear Matt Mills’ focus was not behind him, but in front of him.

Mills is returning to the racetrack six days after a violent NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series crash at Homestead-Miami (Fla.) Speedway that left him in the hospital for nearly 48 hours due to smoke inhalation that required respiratory treatment and evaluation.

The 27-year-old from Lynchburg, Va., was battling for 17th place on lap 76 at Homestead when he received a shot in the bumper by Conner Jones, which sent Mills up the track in turns three and four and hard into the outside wall before his truck – which briefly caught fire – slid down the banking and into the infield grass.

Mills quickly climbed out as smoke engulfed the cockpit, tended to by on-site medical personnel before being taken to the care center and transported to nearby Jackson South Medical Center.

After being released Monday afternoon, Mills said he quickly put what happened in Miami behind him, knowing that this weekend’s Truck Series race at Martinsville is where his head needs to be.

“I’m feeling a lot better; each day it feels like I’m five times better than the day before, so it’s good to be progressing so quickly through the week and feeling a lot more normal,” Mills said. “It has been a recovery process, but when I went to the simulator [Thursday] night, everything felt great, so I’m just ready to get back in the truck, move forward, and try to get Niece Motorsports a great finish here at Martinsville.”

Mills clarified that there were no physical concerns from the accident aside from the smoke inhalation that he was treated for, leading to quick clearance from NASCAR to resume full driving duties.

“[The issues were] 100 percent smoke inhalation. Basically, when the flames started coming into the cockpit, I panicked a bit and started breathing heavier and heavier … which just made everything a lot worse,” Mills explained. “It was really the first time I’ve been in that situation with my race car catching on fire like that, so at least now I know how to prepare myself better if it happens again, but it was definitely a moment that you don’t want to have happen, for sure.

“That’s in the past now, though, and we’re here at Martinsville and hoping to put that in the history books with a better run this weekend.”

As a result of the incident and Jones’ admission of intentional fault over the radio during the Homestead race, Jones was suspended one race by NASCAR and will not compete at Martinsville for ThorSport Racing.

Mills reflected on the laps leading up to the crash, but also tipped that he hopes the whole situation can be a learning experience for everyone involved.

“Conner and I and a couple of others had been crossing one another up before that, and I felt like we’d been faster than Conner was all race, but I got tight behind someone, and he crossed me over where after he slid up in front of me … I gave him a little push down the backstretch,” Mills recalled. “I think it got him a little free [on corner entry], and I can understand he might have been a little aggravated at that, but he wasn’t close to wrecking and he didn’t hit the wall. That was just a racing deal, in my eyes.

“I heard him lift halfway down the back straightaway, and my spotter warned me, ‘Hey, you’re gonna get wrecked,’ so I sent it off into turn three … and he just sent it off even harder because he was committed to get to me,” Mills added. “That’s why I overcorrected so easily, is because that was the fastest that I’d entered that corner all day, and once you get off the bottom lane at Homestead there’s no grip at all and the truck just took off on me.

“I’ve never had any incidents with Conner leading up to that … and he has reached out, but it has been such a hectic week that my focus was with my doctors and on getting back to the racetrack. When I feel like I can have a healthy conversation with him, I may reach back out. But I’m not a vengeful person and I do think Conner has talent, so I hope this can be looked at as a lesson for him and not a punishment or a penalty.”

As for what he himself has learned, Mills – who has a best finish of fourth this season from May’s race at Charlotte Motor Speedway – chalked Homestead’s lesson up to a reminder that he may be able to be a bit more aggressive in his own right going forward to better assert his place in the field.

“I try to race everyone with respect, and if anything, the problem this year has been that I’ve gotten pushed around a bit too much and haven’t done or don’t do anything about it,” Mills admitted.

“Now, though, I’m trying to just forget about that whole deal, move on to Martinsville, and see what we can make happen here at a short track.”