Concussions left Junior ‘terrified’
Racing was very much an afterthought for Dale Earnhardt Jr. last year as he struggled to recover from the impacts and effects of concussions.
Earnhardt returned to driving in February after missing half of last season, and the countdown to his retirement is now at seven races leading into Sunday’s Bank of America 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway (2 p.m. ET, NBC). There, he will race in front of his hometown fans for the final time as a fulltime Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series driver.
Amy Earnhardt, his wife, was by his side for much of the rehabilitation process that returned him to racing — and, in
many ways, to life.
“It was a scary thing,” she told USA TODAY Sports. “He was terrified. He was terrified more that he would not be able to function as a human being again and enjoy life. Racing wasn’t even a thought.”
Through the recovery process, Amy said she pushed her husband on days when he ap-
peared on the edge of giving up.
“I had to motivate him to get up every day and do his physical therapy,” she said. “He was extremely frustrated with the symptoms he was having, mainly because he is Dale Jr. and he wants everything to happen at the moment.
“He wasn’t very optimistic about it. It took a couple of months before we started seeing any real progress. It was a matter of keeping him motivated and doing the grind work with him.”
The rehabilitation process reached a level of success that enabled Earnhardt to begin thinking about racing again, and that brought a new dynamic into the picture, Amy said.
“When he started feeling better and racing became an option again, he got excited, and that helped propel him,” she said. “For the rest of us, I think it made us a little nervous about what if this (concussion) happens again.
“Of course, that’s not something you can say to him. It’s more or less his decision. We had a lot of long talks as we were going through treatment. The conversation he really needed to have was with himself. I couldn’t tell him to retire. I tried to make him comfortable with what he wanted to do.”
Amy and Dale were married last New Year’s Eve after several years of being together. They met in the spring of 2008 when Amy was part of an interior design team working on Earnhardt’s new house.
“We didn’t start dating immediately, but there was like an instant kinetic energy between us,” she said. Then living in Jacksonville, she said she had no real interest in racing.
“I could tell you who the Earnhardts were and who Jeff Gordon was,” she said, “but I had never watched a race. I remember them being on TV, but I couldn’t have cared less. I didn’t even know what he would look like.
“My first impression was that he wasn’t as tall as I thought he would be. I assumed his hair would be really red, and it wasn’t. I was pleasantly surprised with his physical appearance, but he was really shy. He was very kind. He shook my hand. He said, ‘Yes, ma’am.’ ”
Amy worked on designing the interior of Earnhardt’s new house without knowing she eventually would live in it.
“If I had only known, I would have done so many things differently,” she said, with a laugh. “It’s designed for Dale. It’s a bachelor pad. It’s gorgeous, but there are some things I’d change.”
Amy knows things about Earnhardt that most people don’t. For example:
“He likes to cuddle on the couch. I know he has this kind of persona as a race car driver, but he’s just a sweet guy. He’s got this affinity for blankets. The last thing he wants to do is sit on the couch. He likes to lay around and cuddle up with a blanket. He’s just a sweetheart.”
As Earnhardt’s final season winds down, the emotions tied to his long career in the sport and the life and death of his father, Dale Earnhardt Sr., are building. Amy said she has tried to keep things on an even keel as the ending at Homestead-Miami Speedway approaches Nov. 19.
“I’m cautious to get too emotional, especially in front of Dale, because I don’t want to stress him out,” she said. “I think he’s trying to get through each race one at a time so he can enjoy each one and not let the idea that this is the last one kind of overtake him.
“I’m just kind of going along and enjoying the ride with him and taking in the moments but not seeing it as almost like a deathbed, if you will, because it’s not.
“It’s just the end of a chapter. I’m going to let him get emotional when he wants to, and until then I’m not going to.”