I also thought that was a medical fact, but a few weeks ago I saw a doctor on Race Hub (IIRC) who said there is no medical proof that things get worse [from multiple concussions]. I don't know what is correct, just relaying what one doc said on TV. Dale's doctors are genuine concussion experts, so I believe he'll get the best available medical advice from his doctors.
Sorry to quote myself, but I want to clarify this. The same doc was on Race Hub again Thursday, and I saw his comments via DVR on Friday. Among other comments, he said three things:
(1) There is no proof that getting concussed makes one more susceptible to getting concussed again, i.e. no proof that concussions "soften your head" and render you less able to take a given blow without injury.
(2) However, athletes who have concussions often do get concussed again simply because of what they do at work, they return to high risk behavior in their job like playing football or hockey or driving stock cars.
(3) There *is* strong evidence that the effect of multiple concussions accumulates, so getting the next one is likely to be *more* injurious than your prior one. This point is a subtle difference from point #1 above, and I had misunderstood the difference. This point would be the bad news for Junior's situation.
I am pretty shaken up by Junior's latest announcement, two more weeks, so that will be eight weeks (and counting) out of the car. And that wreck in Michigan that is said to be the cause of injury, that wreck didn't look like an extreme hit. Any Nascar driver would expect that he'd take another hit as bad or worse if he's driving Cup cars, IMO.
I'm not going to say what Junior "should do," because I don't have the expertise, only Dale and his doctors have that, but frankly it scares me.