Fittipaldi Can Race Again

Joking with friends and moving about his hospital room a day after neck surgery, race car driver Emerson Fittipaldi received the best news possible: He could race again, as soon as this fall.

Doctors at Jackson Memorial Hospital spent 5 hours Monday night repairing a fractured cervical vertebra.

The 49-year-old Brazilian broke the bone at the base of his neck Sunday in a fiery crash after the first lap of the Marlboro 500 at Michigan International Speedway.

“He had one severe injury. It’s close to miraculous that he wasn’t paralyzed,” said neurosurgeon Barth Green, who led a team of specialists in the operation.