Six Years After His Unusual Cancellation of “Bloodthirsty” Daytona and Talladega, Dale Earnhardt Jr Makes a Spine-Chilling Admission

Every form of sport comes with its own idiosyncrasies and essence, but also with its own set of uncertainty. No sport is free from its own perils, but motorsports, or NASCAR in general, is surely in a league of its own. Nothing can be ascertained when drivers are driving at the speed of 180mph. 

And no one knows it better than Dale Earnhardt Jr, who lost his father, the legendary driver during the 2001 Daytona 500. But it was not just this race that showed the world what could happen to a race car driver in a race. Dale Earnhardt Jr too has seen the worst effects of concussions, which he talked about in a conversation with Graham Bensinger in 2018.

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When a car at high speed after spinning hits the wall, it creates a great impact, and more often than not, the impact turns out to be severe. And as a result, the drivers often suffer concussions, the constant jarring effect. In contemporary times, concussion is considered a medical issue, and drivers do miss out on races as they fail to get medical clearances. If you are wondering how serious a concussion can be, Dale Earnhardt Jr’s testimony is sure to send shivers down the spine.

After suffering from the first set of concussions during the race weekend at Kansas back in 2012, Junior revealed, “I could feel every single day, was really alarming and I didn’t tell anyone and kept it to myself.” 

After suffering and recuperating from the concussion for four weeks, Dale Jr added fact, “When I went to Talladega, that Friday was the day I woke up, I was like I feel good. Alright, we are at Talladega…at Talladega, there is like an 80% chance you are gonna crash. So with these symptoms, my whole goal was to not hit anything at all at any point during those weeks. I am trying to get through the race instead of winning the race.”

However, what Dale feared ended up happening. As he got stuck in the middle of a “nasty snarly pack” it wasn’t long before things got bad to worse. Describing the wreck, he said, “I am sandwiched between another guy and another guy on the wall, and cars in front of me and cars are hitting me in the back and we are all just kinda sliding down the hill. And Bobby [Labonte] is coming down the apron, and he’s trying to miss the wreck and I slid down in front of him and he hit me in the right behind the seat, in the left rear tire.”

“He hit me and spun my car around really fast and I felt it immediately in my head.”   

After Dale explained the horrific crash that put him in the same place, medically, from where he had recovered after the Kansas wreck, we got to see an old footage of his post-race interview. In the clip, we hear an angry Dale Jr saying, “I don’t even wanna go to Daytona and Talladega next year. But I ain’t got much choice.”

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Dale Earnhardt Jr Recalls the Harrowing Side of Suffering From Concussions

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After suffering from the second set of concussions, within four weeks’ time, Dale Junior divulges the fact of how the symptoms changed. He adds that he started suffering from anger issues and couldn’t control his emotions. After escaping from the on-track carnage, Dale Junior recalled the fact that he blamed the authorities for the crash. 

He revealed, “I got out of the car and I am like why I am racing, this is not racing. I called it bloodthirsty and I was blaming NASCAR for all this crashing and every time we come here we wreck on the last lap and the officiating body needs to stop this type of racing.”

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Owing to his aggressive behavior on the track, he stood the chance of being penalized by the authorities. But thanks to his lucky stars he averted the chances of being penalized. However, the incident took a big toll on the former driver.

If this does not suffice the fact of how catastrophic concussions can be, one can also cite the example of Kurt Busch, who retired from racing, after suffering the same in Pocono last year. These issues surely need to be addressed by the authorities to avoid being repeated.