DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Kyle Roland, who's used to being in the middle of 14-second pit stops, was moving considerably slower Sunday as he headed toward pit road at Daytona International Speedway.

The intense pedestrian traffic was one issue. Another was the thigh-to-calf knee brace on his right leg, which forced him to use a long golf umbrella as a cane. But the biggest was the stream of well-wishers, including a number of other teams' pit crew members, who stopped him to wish him well.

"I couldn't decide if you were auditioning to be a jack man, or a stunt man," one of them said.

"Or a hood ornament," Roland shot back.

"Hey crip," another mechanic called out as he hurried to complete an errand. Roland said he expected no mercy from the raucous, but supportive crowd in the Cup garage. The mood was light, but Roland's purpose on his new team's biggest day was serious.

"Everybody's making fun of me and asking me how I'm feeling, and I just say, 'I feel like I got hit by a car,'" Roland said. "I'm just here [Sunday] supporting my team, because we're in the Daytona 500. Hopefully, we have a good showing out here, because we really need it for this team."

Roland, a charter member of Jeremy Mayfield's 4-week-old team, was scheduled to jack Mayfield's No. 41 Toyota in its first Cup points race; but he was injured this past Thursday when he was struck on pit road by Kirk Shelmerdine's No. 27 Toyota, which he'd volunteered to help service in the first 150-mile Daytona 500 qualifying race.

“

I just remember waking up with people standing over the top of me. I knew I was still on pit road because I could still hear cars roaring at me. I don't remember the actual contact of the car.

”

KYLE ROLAND

"We were doing a favor to him because they were pitting in the same stall as us," Roland said of Shelmerdine. "This team just got together a week and a half before we came down here, so we didn't really have a lot of time to practice as a team. So Kirk called me up and asked if our group would pit his car and Tony Furr, our crew chief, said it was OK -- so we were just going to get a couple stops in and get gelled together before we had to pit Mayfield's car in the next race."

The near disaster occurred when Roland said Kurt Busch's car, pitted in the stall upstream of Shelmerdine's, blocked his view of his car's arrival (watch video).

"It was wild," Roland said. "When they got to me on pit road they said that I had been knocked out. The first thing that I remember was knowing that something was going to happen, and it happened so quick anyway, I think I tried to jump, and I guess when I jumped it clipped me at the knee and flipped me right over on top of my head on the other side of the car.

"From there I don't remember nothing. I just remember waking up with people standing over the top of me. I knew I was still on pit road because I could still hear cars roaring at me, and I could still hear Kirk's car roaring at me. I don't remember the actual contact of the car."

Roland was removed on a stretcher and taken to nearby Halifax Medical Center, where he remained overnight before being released Friday. On Sunday, he said his right knee and left shoulder were injured, but he didn't yet know how severely.

"They did X-rays and there were no broken bones, but I couldn't do an MRI because I was too shaky because of all the pain medication I was on," Roland said. "I just said I'll get back with my team doctor, who I'm most confident in, so they released me late Friday afternoon."

Besides seeing Roland back at the track, the best news is that his injuries were covered.

"NASCAR's pretty good at taking care of you," Roland said. "Whatever our insurance doesn't cover, NASCAR's gonna pick up so the bill's basically gonna be covered."

And the general mechanic/fabricator said he planned to be back at work sooner rather than later.

"Until I find out how much extensive damage there is, I won't know how much rehabilitation I'm going to have to do," Roland said. "But as soon as I can, I want to get back and support my team. I'm sure I'll be back in the shop, hopping around and working on some things on the car, getting it ready for the next race.

"But as far as going over the wall it might be a little bit."

Mike Marks, who jacked Jason Leffler's No. 38 Braun Racing Toyota on Saturday at Daytona, stepped in on Mayfield's pit crew Sunday.