Arrow-right Camera
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Earnhardt Ok’d To Get Back On Track

Associated Press

A “migraine-like event” probably caused Dale Earnhardt to fall asleep at the wheel of his race car last weekend, a doctor who performed tests on the driver said Thursday.

Dr. Charles Branch of the neurosurgery department at Bowman Gray Medical Center in Winston-Salem, N.C., notified NASCAR that he has cleared the seven-time Winston Cup champion to race this weekend.

“The episode last weekend in all likelihood was a peculiar form of a migraine-like event that caused a brief period of altered mental function,” Branch said.

He said the incident also could be the result of a small bruise on the brain from an earlier incident.

In last Sunday’s Southern 500 at Darlington, S.C., Earnhardt twice fell asleep at the wheel while waiting for the race to start. He then wrecked on the first lap and had trouble finding his way back to pit road.

Branch’s clearance came after Earnhardt underwent four days of testing at two hospitals. The results were reviewed by specialists at two other hospitals, then sent to the circuit’s headquarters in Daytona Beach, Fla.

NASCAR said Branch and Earnhardt would answer questions about the tests at the track Friday.

On Wednesday, Dale Earnhardt Jr. said he’d gone dove hunting with his father the day after the race in South Carolina and his father seemed fine.

“He caught his usual,” he said. “To do that, his eyesight would have to be at least near-perfect. That’s something I really paid attention to.”

Earnhardt has long been known for taking cat naps while sitting in his car waiting for repairs or for a race to begin. So when he nodded off before the start of the Southern 500, no one in his pit paid much attention.

They became suspicious, though, when Earnhardt fell asleep a second time. But by then, the drivers were being ordered to start their engines, and Earnhardt fired up the car and drove away with the rest of the field.

On the first lap, Earnhardt’s Chevrolet Monte Carlo slammed into the concrete retaining wall in both the first and second turns. Earnhardt failed to respond when car owner Richard Childress called him on the radio several times, and the driver also couldn’t find the entrance to pit row.

When Earnhardt finally came over the radio, he apologized for seeing “two racetracks.”

Earnhardt finally pulled over and was lifted from his car like a rag doll and taken first to the infield care center, then to a nearby hospital.

Waltrip to start on pole

Michael Waltrip won the pole position for the Busch Grand National Autolite Platinum 250 in first-day qualifying.

Waltrip’s lap of 122.227 mph around Richmond International Raceway’s 3/4-mile oval edged Steve Park’s 122.216.

Keselowski gets first win

Bob Keselowski passed Jay Sauter with 29 laps remaining and went on to his first career NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series victory in the Virginia Is For Lovers race in Richmond, Va.