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"We've got a good team. We'll rebound and come back and get 'em next year. I told him we'd get some duct tape and just tape me to the seat and cut me loose when the race was over, but they wouldn't go for it."
The full article from NOL:
CONCORD, N.C. -- Sterling Marlin, wearing a collar around his injured neck, described his disappointment at losing a chance to win a Winston Cup championship after suffering a season-ending injury last weekend at Kansas.
"The guys put so much into it this year," he said during Friday's visit to Talladega Superspeedway. "They were really focused on winning the championship, and I was, too.
"It was a deal where I had to get out. Another lick and I could have been paralyzed or whatever. I think my health is more important than the championship.
Al Shuford, the team trainer for Chip Ganassi Racing, said Marlin is wearing a special collar that will help him heal without having surgery on his dislocated vertebra.
"Following Sterling's accidents at Richmond and Kansas, he participated in the same evaluation procedure with Dr. Petty, neurosurgeon of the Carolina Neurological and Spinal Injury Clinic, each time," Shuford said. "The non-displaced fracture of the No. 2 cervical vertebra showed up in the evaluation procedure following the Kansas accident. The fracture did not show up following the Richmond accident."
"Sterling is currently wearing an Aspen collar that keeps the cervical vertebrae stable. He is expected to wear it for a minimum of four weeks. The fracture will heal naturally and Sterling is currently not scheduled to undergo surgery."
Shuford also said that he suggested Marlin switch to a HANS device after the Richmond accident. Marlin had been wearing a Hutchens device up until that point.
After wearing the HANS during a two-day test at Kentucky, Marlin wore it for the first time in a race at Dover. For the week following that race, Marlin said his chest was sore so he went back to the Hutchens.
"He decided to go back to wearing the Hutchens device during the Kansas weekend due to the fact that the HANS device was uncomfortable because his chest was sore," Shuford said. "There is no way to determine if either device would have prevented this injury."
Marlin described the events following the crash that led to the decision to remove him from the car for the rest of the season.
"My neck hurt then, but it didn't hurt bad," he said. "I didn't think anything about it. It surprised me after they did X-rays and saw it. If I hadn't gone and got the X-ray I would be driving right now with a cracked vertebra."
The full article from NOL:
CONCORD, N.C. -- Sterling Marlin, wearing a collar around his injured neck, described his disappointment at losing a chance to win a Winston Cup championship after suffering a season-ending injury last weekend at Kansas.
"The guys put so much into it this year," he said during Friday's visit to Talladega Superspeedway. "They were really focused on winning the championship, and I was, too.
"It was a deal where I had to get out. Another lick and I could have been paralyzed or whatever. I think my health is more important than the championship.
Al Shuford, the team trainer for Chip Ganassi Racing, said Marlin is wearing a special collar that will help him heal without having surgery on his dislocated vertebra.
"Following Sterling's accidents at Richmond and Kansas, he participated in the same evaluation procedure with Dr. Petty, neurosurgeon of the Carolina Neurological and Spinal Injury Clinic, each time," Shuford said. "The non-displaced fracture of the No. 2 cervical vertebra showed up in the evaluation procedure following the Kansas accident. The fracture did not show up following the Richmond accident."
"Sterling is currently wearing an Aspen collar that keeps the cervical vertebrae stable. He is expected to wear it for a minimum of four weeks. The fracture will heal naturally and Sterling is currently not scheduled to undergo surgery."
Shuford also said that he suggested Marlin switch to a HANS device after the Richmond accident. Marlin had been wearing a Hutchens device up until that point.
After wearing the HANS during a two-day test at Kentucky, Marlin wore it for the first time in a race at Dover. For the week following that race, Marlin said his chest was sore so he went back to the Hutchens.
"He decided to go back to wearing the Hutchens device during the Kansas weekend due to the fact that the HANS device was uncomfortable because his chest was sore," Shuford said. "There is no way to determine if either device would have prevented this injury."
Marlin described the events following the crash that led to the decision to remove him from the car for the rest of the season.
"My neck hurt then, but it didn't hurt bad," he said. "I didn't think anything about it. It surprised me after they did X-rays and saw it. If I hadn't gone and got the X-ray I would be driving right now with a cracked vertebra."
