LDN - Sports

Questions about Earnhardt's future cloud Darlington weekend

[September 06, 2016] By Jonathan Ingram, The Sports Xchange

Prior to the running of the Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway, there was no shortage of drama. Throwback paint schemes, old school driver and pit crew uniforms were all the rage. A tropical storm floated nearby. The last remaining Chase positions were to be decided.

Once the checkers fell, Martin Truex, Jr. had won a second major Sprint Cup victory this season for his upstart single-car team based in Denver, Colorado, not Denver, North Carolina. He did it in front of packed grandstands on both sides of the track.

And still the biggest story of the Labor Day weekend was the absence of Dale Earnhardt Jr. from the Sprint Cup until at least February.

In a meeting with the media earlier in the day of the race, Earnhardt discussed his disappointment and his optimism about the decision to stay out of his Hendrick Motorsports Chevy until the season begins next year.

He also confirmed that his plans to marry Amy Reimann after the race season ends in November are still in place.

Life goes on.

"I would love to be competing with my guys," he said. "We are obviously out of the Chase and all that stuff, but I'm not really concerned about that. I just enjoyed what I was doing, enjoyed my job and have a great group of guys that believe in me as a driver. It's a difficult decision."

It's rare for anybody to upstage Earnhardt. But Dr. Micky Collins of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center's head injury unit took center stage. Collins, who is working with Dr. Jerry Petty, Earnhardt neurosurgeon, vouched for Earnhardt's future as a driver.

Collins said he expects him to come back to racing without the risk of repeating the same relatively light force injury that took Earnhardt out of the car. His accident at the Michigan International Speedway in June would not normally cause extensive concussion-type problems, but have now resulted in him missing half of the season.

"We've advanced things to the point where we really do know how to rehab these systems well," said Collins. "And there are a lot of treatments that Dale is going through. He's going through vision therapy; he's going through exercise therapy.

"There's a lot of different therapies we're doing to build those systems. And, hopefully we can get to a point where we see that he can withstand the normal forces of a race car driver. If he had a significant force, that can cause an injury as it would anyone. But that's what we're trying to get to is that level."

Collins also vouched for why a decision was taken to skip the remainder of the season. Earnhardt's focus on getting back into the car was producing too much anxiety, he said, which became counter-productive to the rehabilitation.

"I feel very strongly the right decision was made to take Dale out of racing, so we can focus on getting him better and reduce the stress that is associated with that," he said. "Stress and concussion don't get along well and we see stress can really exacerbate and worsen things. I don't think its coincidence that since we made that decision we are starting to see a lot of progress here that I'm excited about."

The specter of this plan not working out -- yet another injury from light force or possibly an even longer rehabilitation process -- looms despite the optimism and established expertise of Dr. Collins.

[to top of second column]

In this light, the most memorable of the throwback memories at Darlington this weekend might have been the last lap of the spring race at the storied old track in 2003. That's when Ricky Craven, previously considered a fallen warrior due to a career-threatening concussion, banged and slammed his way to a photo finish victory against Kurt Busch, their two cars joined at the front and rear quarterpanels.

Craven is exhibit one for those looking to see Earnhardt, Jr. not only back behind the wheel, but also in victory lane. He's an example of a driver who went to the sidelines for a long period and then came back.

Currently a commentator for ESPN, Craven sat out 13 races in the 1998 season due to concussion symptoms and came back to win the pole at his home track at New Hampshire Motor Speedway for team owner Rick Hendrick.

He missed an additional 11 races that same season and did not return to victory lane until three years later during the 2001 season while driving for Cal Wells. The slam-bang finish at Darlington was his second post-concussion success story.

Even though the Craven story might provide sustenance, for now NASCAR Nation and Earnhardt Nation have to rely on the expertise of Collins when it comes to the future of the Sprint Cup's Most Popular Driver. There's no doubt the driver himself is doing all the right things, including not being too self-conscious about "needing a little more sidewalk" when it comes to just plain walking sometimes.

The driver knows he's got a lot of people in the grandstands and garage in his corner, especially his teammates, car owner Rick Hendrick and former teammate Jeff Gordon. Who else could get four-time champion Gordon to come out of retirement as a substitute?

Although independent and cynical as usual, the Sprint Cup's sometimes hard-bitten media corps has yet to find any scandal or try to create one. Still there's the lingering question of what would the Sprint Cup be like without a competitive Earnhardt regularly behind the wheel?

It hasn't happened in 37 seasons and is not a comfortable prospect for the long haul. The sport continues to lose TV ratings in a manner that is troublesome and ticket sales continue to lag badly in some areas such as the preceding Michigan race.

Yet, there was Earnhardt being his usual talkative, sometimes soul-searching self at the track on race day. As he noted himself, it was "weird" for him to not be getting into a race car. But like Richard Petty's ongoing 80th birthday celebration and the throwback schemes, Earnhardt, Jr.'s sheer presence was a reminder that the world of stock car racing keeps turning. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the weekend were grandstands full to the gills.

-----------------------------------------------

Back to top