Hildebrand has knee surgery

National Guard Panther Racing driver JR Hildebrand underwent successful surgery Wednesday to repair a torn ACL in his left knee, an injury suffered in an off-track incident in June of this year. The surgery was performed by Dr. Don Shelbourne at Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis and Hildebrand is expected to begin physical therapy at St. Vincent Sports Performance Center beginning within the next week. Everything went well and I was just definitely excited about being able to get in here and finally get everything done," Hildebrand said.

“While it didn’t have a big affect on what I was doing inside the racecar, and I had a lot of help from people to make sure it didn’t, it definitely had an impact on my training outside of the car. Training is a big part of my daily routine, and my sanity in some ways, so I’m excited about getting going with my rehab and to get back in the training mode as soon as I can."

Hildebrand, the Indy 500 Rookie of the Year, suffered the injury a week after his runner-up finish at Indianapolis, but the 23-year-old missed zero track time as a result. He is not expected to miss any off-season test time as a result of yesterday’s surgery, and will be fully recovered in time for the 2012 IZOD IndyCar Series season.