BREAKING NEWS: DALE JR OUT AT CHARLOTTE

wilson89 said:
Anyone know when the last cup race was that an Earnhardt was not in?
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Answer, from page one of this thread ;)

AndyMarquisLive said:
The last time an Earnhardt did not start a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race -- you have to go back to Darlington on September 3, 1979.

Now you don't have to look it up because I already did.
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I'm glad that he realized he had a problem and that they diagnosed it before he had a chance to climb back into a race car. It's better to be safe then sorry.
 
Talladega is fast, but so is Texas, Atlanta, Charlotte, Michigan, California, and many other tracks. Shoot, even Martinsville and Watkins Glen have seen some hard crashes. It's not the pack racing that's so dangerous...it's the speeds. And having an entire race at pace car speed wouldn't be too exciting. They already have so many safety features in the cars and around the tracks...so in all honestly, they've nearly done all they can. When you're a race car driver, getting injured is simply a risk. If you want to be 100% sure that you wont get injured...you should probably be a chess player. I can only hope that NASCAR doesn't try making chances because of this, because in my opinion, it's not needed.
 
dannynascar said:
If I was in Jr's shoes and really wanted to send a message to nascar. I'd start the Daytona 500 next year and park after 1 lap That would send nascar the message!
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haaaaaa,Id get the pole for the 500,n say,btw,I'M NOT RACING NEXT THURSDAY R SUNDAY.:XXROFL:
 
On a serious note he most likely won't run in he nationwide races at dega and Daytona anymore. And you can forget him winning at either of those tracks again. Get well soon Dale and don't come back till you are ready.
 
from jayski. Earnhardt Jr's statement during yesterday's news conference.

DALE EARNHARDT, JR.: I guess I'll just start out with where this all kind of began. We had a test at Kansas about five weeks ago, and we blew a right front tire going into Turn 1, and I remember everything about that accident and everything after that accident, but I knew that I didn't feel -- you know your body, and you know how your mind works, and I knew something was just not quite right. But I decided to just try to push through and work through it. I'd had concussions before and knew exactly kind of what I was dealing with. I felt pretty good after a week or two and definitely 80, 90 percent by the time the Chase started, and by the time we got to Talladega I felt 100 percent, felt really good. And then the accident at the end of that race, I was hit in the left rear quarter panel, and it was sort of an odd kind of a collision where the car spun around really quick and just sort of disoriented me, and I knew that I had sort of regressed and had a bit of a setback and knew -- again, you know how your body is and you know when something is not quite right, and I knew as soon as it happened that I had reinjured myself, for lack of a better way to describe it. It didn't feel -- it was not even half of the impact that I had at Kansas, but it was enough to cause me some concern.

So I went a couple days wondering how my body would react and sort of waiting for it to process what was happening. About Wednesday I was still having some headaches, just that was really the only symptoms that I was having was the headaches. So I took it upon myself to -- I contacted my sister, and we talked about seeing a neurosurgeon, and we ended up getting steered toward Dr. Petty. Met with him, ran through a couple tests, everything was checking out, and did an MRI, everything looked good there. But I was really honest with him about how I felt and honest with him about the whole process from Kansas all the way on.

He spent the night thinking about what we discussed and everything that we did on Wednesday and couldn't clear me to race this weekend. I trust his opinion. That's why I went to see him. He's been a good friend of mine for a long time and has helped me through a lot of injuries before, so I believe when he tells me I don't need to be in the car and I need to take a couple weeks off that that's what I need to do.

That's pretty much the extent of it. I got a lot of support from my team. I'm excited about their opportunities the next couple weeks with Regan, and just looking forward to getting this cleared up and getting back in the car as soon as I can so I can get back to work with my team and getting back to competing on Sundays.
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sloggie said:
I think there is a good chance he won't race again until next season.
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I sadly agree. What would be the possible reason to even bother coming back this year with a few races to go? I'm disappointed seeing that he is my driver of choice and I'll be at Martinsville in a couple weeks but that's how it goes sometimes. I'll still have a great time.
 
Stewart Fan said:
Who else is there?
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I would have liked to have seen them throw Allmendinger in there. Not for the results. Just for backing someone that went through the steps to get back there. I think that would have gone a long way and it would have said a lot for him should Hendrick have done that. Of course maybe the sponsor didn't like 'How he Dew!'.
 
Brent said:
Talladega is fast, but so is Texas, Atlanta, Charlotte, Michigan, California, and many other tracks. Shoot, even Martinsville and Watkins Glen have seen some hard crashes. It's not the pack racing that's so dangerous...it's the speeds. And having an entire race at pace car speed wouldn't be too exciting. They already have so many safety features in the cars and around the tracks...so in all honestly, they've nearly done all they can. When you're a race car driver, getting injured is simply a risk. If you want to be 100% sure that you wont get injured...you should probably be a chess player. I can only hope that NASCAR doesn't try making chances because of this, because in my opinion, it's not needed.
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I agree, Police, Firefighters, and many more jobs are dangerous but pay a fraction of what a Nascar Driver makes. If you like racing cars and enjoy the money, you have to take chances. My opinion is that Nascar should pull the plates from the cars and let them use their common horse sense to control their speed. If they wreck or get wrecked it will be the same effects it is now. By lifting thew plates it would mean there would not be as many cars riding around in bunches. There will always be fools on the track that will cause wrecks, that's just the nature of the beast.
 
Here's a conspiracy theory for you. (apologies if anyone already went there and I missed it). Oh, and it's not my theory, just thought I'd throw it out there.


Earnhardt Jr. not injured but under "super secret" nascar penalty. Think about it...Jr. already said he has/had a "mild" concussion, so why would you automatically sit out two races? So NASCAR can save face by sitting the sports favorite driver for his statements about superspeedway racing (which were all true and from this heart) and Jr. can sit out his penalty with less embarassment to him and NASCAR...let's see if any "investigative" NASCAR reports can sniff this one out...
 
VaDirt said:
Here's a conspiracy theory for you. (apologies if anyone already went there and I missed it). Oh, and it's not my theory, just thought I'd throw it out there.


Earnhardt Jr. not injured but under "super secret" nascar penalty. Think about it...Jr. already said he has/had a "mild" concussion, so why would you automatically sit out two races? So NASCAR can save face by sitting the sports favorite driver for his statements about superspeedway racing (which were all true and from this heart) and Jr. can sit out his penalty with less embarassment to him and NASCAR...let's see if any "investigative" NASCAR reports can sniff this one out...
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o_O
 
VaDirt said:
Here's a conspiracy theory for you. (apologies if anyone already went there and I missed it). Oh, and it's not my theory, just thought I'd throw it out there.


Earnhardt Jr. not injured but under "super secret" nascar penalty. Think about it...Jr. already said he has/had a "mild" concussion, so why would you automatically sit out two races? So NASCAR can save face by sitting the sports favorite driver for his statements about superspeedway racing (which were all true and from this heart) and Jr. can sit out his penalty with less embarassment to him and NASCAR...let's see if any "investigative" NASCAR reports can sniff this one out...
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I thought about this right away. Then I took my meds and the thought went away.
 
Another interesting read out there today on this subject. Some good points made in here.
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The article makes some good points but it comes down to drivers are independent contractors and are ultimately responsible for there own health. With what is now known about concussions what should NASCAR's responsibility be?

Do the cars have black boxes during races that measure the G force from accidents? I think Indy cars do.
 
Zerkfitting said:
The article makes some good points but it comes down to drivers are independent contractors and are ultimately responsible for there own health. With what is now known about concussions what should NASCAR's responsibility be?

Do the cars have black boxes during races that measure the G force from accidents? I think Indy cars do.
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They do have the box.

Sure they are responsible for their own health but do you think that they may be putting others at risk if they were to be driving impaired? I'm thinking like the article mentions that NASCAR should at the very least be checking these drivers out.
 
Zerkfitting said:
The article makes some good points but it comes down to drivers are independent contractors and are ultimately responsible for there own health. With what is now known about concussions what should NASCAR's responsibility be?

Do the cars have black boxes during races that measure the G force from accidents? I think Indy cars do.
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expecting a guy with a brain injury to make good decisions about racing seems like an odd policy to have. Kinda like police asking drunks if they are ok to drive.
 
dpkimmel2001 said:
I was under the impression, until yesterday, that was the norm. Guess not. Well, it always takes something like this for NASCAR to take notice so I guess something good will come from all of this?
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But ,you do understand that there was nothing for Nascar to find ..right? Dr. Petty did every test he could and all were negative . Junior basically benched himself , with Dr. Petty , because he knew that something wasn't quite right. I sure hope Nascar does NOT take it upon themselves to be sole arbitor of who has a big enough concussion to be benched . Brad K. said on radio today , he was misdiagnosed with concussion like symptoms TWICE . The system obviously is NOT broken. PLEASE DON'T FIX IT .
 
ted@economy said:
But ,you do understand that there was nothing for Nascar to find ..right? Dr. Petty did every test he could and all were negative . Junior basically benched himself , with Dr. Petty , because he knew that something wasn't quite right. I sure hope Nascar does NOT take it upon themselves to be sole arbitor of who has a big enough concussion to be benched . Brad K. said on radio today , he was misdiagnosed with concussion like symptoms TWICE . The system obviously is NOT broken. PLEASE DON'T FIX IT .
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I understand the situation. I also understand that they don't do baseline testing. Yesterday I was under the impression that they did but now I hear otherwise. Perhaps had they had a baseline to compare to then it may have been obvious even though the scans that they did came back negative. That really doesn't seem like a stretch to me to at the very least to have something to compare to. I can't see how you could have an objection to that. The other thing that I found quite concerning is that Jr's medical clearance after the tire test crash came from someone that he was in the ambulance with. It seems something more could be done after an incident like that. Again, I can't see how that would be objectionable either. As far as NASCAR being the sole arbitrator..... I am not sure where that's coming from. If you're talking about doctors hired by NASCAR to determine their physical condition then yes, I think they should be able to make that determination.
 
So...Smith is going to drive the 88 for the next two races. Doesn't Jr. have to start the race in order to get the points?
 
dpkimmel2001 said:
I understand the situation. I also understand that they don't do baseline testing. Yesterday I was under the impression that they did but now I hear otherwise. Perhaps had they had a baseline to compare to then it may have been obvious even though the scans that they did came back negative. That really doesn't seem like a stretch to me to at the very least to have something to compare to. I can't see how you could have an objection to that. The other thing that I found quite concerning is that Jr's medical clearance after the tire test crash came from someone that he was in the ambulance with. It seems something more could be done after an incident like that. Again, I can't see how that would be objectionable either. As far as NASCAR being the sole arbitrator..... I am not sure where that's coming from. If you're talking about doctors hired by NASCAR to determine their physical condition then yes, I think they should be able to make that determination.
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I'm just pointing out that Dr. Petty , who is Nascar's 'go to guy' (far as I know) would have cleared Junior to race based on the tests and brainscan. The main factor that is stopping Junior from racing is not the battery of tests. It is the way Junior says he is feeling. Just don't think that Nascar needs to be laying down a bunch of rules that would likely not have helped anything in this situation. In fact , according to Brad K. , he might have been benched on the two occassions when he was misdiagnosed .
 
Seems a few of us thought baseline testing was in already effect. Where did we get that from?
 
This could get ugly. Can you imagine if fifteen of the drivers involved in the crash last weekend failed their baseline concussion test and got taken out for two weeks?

Also, Jr cannot get in a race car until he is medically cleared.
 
On a side note, how the heck could someone determine a concussion baseline for Ward Burton. :D
 
FWIW, I have had 6 major concussions. The last one also involved amnesia and a compression fracture of C3. The result, in my case is short and long term memory loss, as well as complete memory depletion of a time period during my childhood.
It can be serious stuff.
 
BobbyFord said:
FWIW, I have had 6 major concussions. The last one also involved amnesia and a compression fracture of C3. The result, in my case is short and long term memory loss, as well as complete memory depletion of a time period during my childhood.
It can be serious stuff.
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Ouch. That does explain some of your posts. ;)
 
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