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CONCORD, N.C. and HINCKLEY, Ohio — Matt Tifft’s comeback trail through the fall months of the season has been rooted in support from his team and the push to bring awareness to a cause close to his heart, as well as his career.
Tifft started the 2016 season on the highest of highs. It began with a NASCAR XFINITY Series contract for Joe Gibbs Racing, placing the then 19-year-old alongside defending Sprint Cup champion Kyle Busch in the well-known and potent No. 18 Toyota, and continued at Talladega Superspeedway on April 30 when he scored his first series pole.
But days before his 20th birthday, everything ground to a screeching halt, and from outside perspectives could easily have changed forever.
Tifft found himself suffering from lingering back pain, what appeared to be a disc problem, but went in for analysis and decided to have doctors run an MRI scan to see if, perhaps, some symptoms he was experiencing might not have stemmed from a past concussion.
Instead, the results of the test sent shock waves through his world.
There was a mass, roughly the size of a half-dollar, underneath his right temple. A biopsy was quickly performed, at which point doctors diagnosed the tumor as a low-grade glioma — benign, yes, but still a problem that had to be dealt with, Tifft’s doctors told him.
“I’m not gonna lie, it was one of those moments where you go, ‘This is really happening, isn’t it?’” Tifft said to Race Chaser Online earlier this month. “Even despite that, though, this has been, by far, the best season of my career. It’s hard to break a surge like that. But man, I’ll be honest, there were some days where it wasn’t easy.”
Tifft underwent brain surgery to remove the tumor on July 1, the same night that David Ragan drove the No. 18 Toyota that Tifft would have been in to the pole at Daytona Int’l Speedway in the XFINITY Series.
After the successful procedure, it took 10 long weeks, but sooner — rather than later — Tifft was back on his feet … as well as back behind the wheel of a race car.
“It took about four to eight weeks to recover from the surgery itself, but then I had to go through all the medical protocols to come back (to NASCAR) from a medical clearance standpoint, as well,” the Ohio native explained at Charlotte Motor Speedway during his most recent NASCAR XFINITY Series weekend. “Luckily I didn’t have to go through any chemotherapy or radiation, but I had to undergo a five-day seizure study … where they put me in a room for five days and put 25 probes on my head to monitor me and make sure there was no abnormal electricity or anything going on inside my head. Did a full neurocognitive exam … then I went and did a late model test up at Hickory (Motor Speedway) and ran about 300 laps.”
“All in all, it took from July 1st to … I think, September 16th was when I got back in the truck, so it’s just been getting back used to the swing of things again and I finally, now, feel like I’m at a point where I’m good with where things are at with racing and I feel back to how I was at the beginning of the year.”
