Unlike his competition, Wickens will speed through the course without the use of his legs, operate the race car with only his hands, and use, an electronic hand-braking system developed by Bosch.

It will be the first time the system will be in a race car at the Grand Touring Daytona level and Wickens’s initial race on the circuit as well. It’s a significant step in an excruciating battle that began almost seven years ago after an accident at a 2018 IndyCar Series race at Pocono Raceway.

The way he tells it, he and another driver were fighting for position when their wheels touched, and his car hit a track catch fence.

“I think basically at my point of impact, I was going 212 miles an hour,” Wickens explained in an interview. “It became a very sudden stop, very quickly, and more of like the kind of the rotation of the car is what did the damage to my body.”

The damage was fractures to both hands, his right arm, left and right leg and some broken ribs, but the multiple injuries to his spinal cord were the most devastating of all, paralyzing his legs.

He went through years of multiple surgeries and rehab, at hospitals and rehab facilities in Colorado, Indiana and Pennsylvania, suffering multiple setbacks but never giving up on the idea of returning to the racetrack.

“The question never came to mind that I didn't want to do it,” he recalled. “Whenever drivers would come to visit me the talk was, oh, I'll make the start of next season. I'll be back. I'll make St. Pete and yeah, and I'll get back on the horse and get after it.”