Dale Earnhardt Jr. suffered a concussion during the 25 car pile up on the final lap at Talladega Superspeedway two weekends ago. He was advised not to race last weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway; instead Regan Smith took his place in the No.88.
Earnhardt Jr. visited the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center on Tuesday to see how his head was recovering. According to his sister Kelley Earnhardt, who accompanied him to the medical facility along with Jr.’s girlfriend Amy Reimann and Dr. Jerry Petty she said that Dale is progressing as planned and if he continues to he should be back in his No.88 Chevrolet by Martinsville.
She updated all of Jr. Nation on the Jr. Nation website:
“Dale has been following the doctor’s orders to rest up. The doctor did relax his orders a little last week and allowed him to watch some television and play a little video games. He’s not suppose to “stress” his brain, LOL. We spent the day Tuesday in Pittsburgh at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center with a great team of doctors led by Mickey Collins. Dale spent most of the day doing different therapies and exercises. We got back yesterday afternoon and Dale has some different therapies to do at home as he consults with the doctors each day. If all goes according to plan, and he continues to improve to 100%, he will test a race car early next week to be cleared for Martinsville. This has definitely been an eye opening experience and one that I hope we don’t revisit in his career.”
Earnhardt Jr. was said to of suffered a concussion after his No.88 Chevrolet was hit on the side during the last lap crash at Talladega. After the crash, Jr has some feisty words for fans that said they liked that sort of racing, calling them, “bloodthirsty” and saying if every race was like that he would “quit racing” and “find a new job.” Several days after the accident Jr. told SBNation that he regretted some of his comments, especially since they will be in a completely new car that is suppose to handle better.
Jr. will not be racing this weekend at Kansas Motor Speedway, the second week he will be out of the car. He is said to of suffered the first concussion that compounded his situation at Talladega when he wrecked during tire testing at Kansas in August, although reports were that he was OK.
Smith who was suppose to make his debut in the No.51 of Phoenix Racing last weekend at Charlotte instead drove the No.88. He was having an impressive run but ended up finishing 38th after the car blew up on lap 62.
Martinsville is the week following this weekends race at Kansas.
