At the Knoxville Nationals, disaster struck during one of the dirt races. As it happens, 27-year-old female racer McKenna Haase suffered a terrifying accident. Haase was running in seventh place at Knoxville when she clipped Terry McCarl on the opening lap of the first heat. The impact sent her skidding into the outside wall, and her car proceeded to flip uncontrollably.

The car went briefly airborne, before landing on its roof, right on the roll cage, breaking it in half. Fortunately, Haase was able to make her way to the ambulance and was promptly rushed to the hospital, leaving everyone on their toes, waiting for an update.

The good news is that Haase’s mother, Kelly Ann Haase, shared some crucial information. The bad news, however, is that the accident has caused her devastating injuries.

She took to Facebook, stating, “Thank you to everyone who has reached out. Your prayers are all greatly appreciated. McKenna is currently in a lot of pain. She has chest pain, a pneumothorax in her lungs, ripped up mouth and tongue, very sore neck and body. She was to be transferred to Des Moines, but both trauma centers (Mercy and Methodist) are full. Knoxville Hospital is going to hold her here and continue to monitor the pneumothorax with x-ray and CT. We pray that they will not need to insert a chest tube.”

The mother then added the most vital piece of information, writing, “She is currently stable.” 

Terry McCarl, on the other hand, did not suffer any injuries.

For now, all that everyone can do is hope and pray for her speedy recovery. The Iowa native has enjoyed a very impressive career, becoming the first female to win a sprint car feature at Knoxville in 114 years. Since then, she has picked up several wins, especially at the Knoxville Raceway. It is also interesting to note that she made an appearance on the show, American Ninja Warrior, for two seasons.

The young driver can be perceived as a triple threat, as she’s not just a driver, but has been a budding entrepreneur since her teenage years. But the most interesting part of her racing career is definitely it’s inception!

How a chance encounter changed McKenna Haase’s life

As it happens, Haase first picked up an interest in racing, totally by chance. She fell in love with racing after she happened to meet NASCAR driver Kasey Kahne in a shopping mall when she was in the third grade. For the uninitiated, Kahne is a dirt and stock car racing driver. Having launched his professional stock car racing career in 2002 with the Xfinity Series, the driver has 18 wins in the Cup Series, eight in NASCAR’s second division and five in the Truck Series.

He retired from NASCAR ahead of the 2018 season, and currently competes in the High Limit Racing Series owned by Kyle Larson. The 44-year-old also owns Kasey Kahne Racing, that fields five-time World of Outlaws champion, Brad Sweet in the series.

It also helped that her cousin Trenton was also been involved in the racing scene. By the time she reached her teenage years, Haase had established her own race team, Team Haase Racing LLC, and began competing in the box stock outlaw kart scene.

From there, she eventually graduated to sprint cars, though she mostly plied her trade at the Knoxville Raceway. Away from the track, McKenna Haase is a Finance major at Drake University. Additionally, she also established a youth driver development program called Compass Racing Development LLC, in 2015. The objective of this program is to provide kids with racing opportunities that they wouldn’t have received before.

Haase has been very self-sufficient because she has experience as a mechanic, working on her own cars. Admittedly, there have been a few bumps along the way, but the Iowa native has navigated through them all. Of course, the end game for Haase is to finally reach NASCAR, but whether that is as a driver or even a crew member, is anyone’s guess.