Earnhardt enthusiastic in wake of Daytona wreck
DAYTONA BEACH — The bad news for Dale Earnhardt Jr. fans was that his car was a mess after Sunday’s race. The good news was Junior’s head wasn’t. “I feel good,” he said. That’s a much better self-diagnosis than Earnhardt offered after his last wreck. He missed the final 18 races of the 2016 season while suffering concussionsymptoms.
Dizziness and other manifestations were so severe that Earnhardt thought he might never race again. That concept horrified fans who have voted Earnhardt NASCAR’s favorite driver for 14 straight seasons.
Doctors cleared him to race in December, but the experience left Earnhardt contemplating his racing mortality. He hinted he might retire if he wins this season’s championship. Some speculated the 42-year-old might even walk away if he won the Daytona 500.
That possibility ended on Lap 105. Earnhardt had been running strong and led for eight laps, but he got tangled up in the wreck that claimed Kyle Busch, Matt Kenseth and Erik Jones.
Busch blew a tire to start the melee, and Earnhardt slammed into Busch’s car hard enough to lift both tires on the right side of the No. 88 into the air.
Earnhardt nursed the car to the pits, where NASCAR’s new Damaged Vehicle Policy kicked in. Crews have fiveminutes to repair cars to the point they can meet the race’s “minimum speed.”
Earnhardt’s pit crew hammered on the damage for about four minutes. Earnhardt went back on the track, but a red flag came out as crews cleaned up the wreck area.
Cars were stopped in their tracks for 17 minutes. Somewhere in that down time Earnhardt and his crew decided his car wasn’t in shape to continue.
Along with extensive body damage, the radiator was knocked into the fuel pump. Under the policy, damaged equipment can be repaired but not replaced.
Last year, Earnhardt might havewanted to keep racing. The new repair policy made that impossible, but the concussion problems have given him a different perspective.
“I’ll be honest with you, I don’t want to drive no wrecked race car the rest of the day,” Earnhardt said. “I’m glad we took it to the garage.”
He’d met with NASCAR officials in the offseason to discuss ways to improve safety. After study and testing, Earnhardt decided to tighten the stabilizing system around his helmet.
“I know we say that so much it sounds cliche,” he said. “But if they hadn’t put that money into it to do the studies that they’ve done I probably would have been injured right there. I just need to thank NASCAR.”
Protocol required him to go to the infield medical center to be cleared. Earnhardt walked out with a clean bill of health, though concussion symptoms are not always quickly detected.
The crash that caused last year’s problems was in June, but Earnhardt didn’t stop racing for almost another month. He doesn’t anticipate complications this time.
“I don’t have any of the [concussion] symptoms or anything that I experienced in the past,” he said. “It wasn’t that hard of a hit, but that still doesn’t mean you can’t get injured.”
As he left, Earnhardt thanked fans for welcoming him back during Speedweeks. Rarely has a 37th-place finish felt so good.
Then Earnhardt said he was looking forward to racing this coming weekend at Atlanta.
That’s the news his fans reallywanted to hear.