On his weekly “Dale Jr. Download” podcast, Dale Earnhardt Jr. revealed that doctors believe his concussion-like symptoms stemmed from his June 12 crash at Michigan International Speedway.
Earnhardt said that he and the doctors went through every process — from blood tests to testing for Lyme disease — before they were able to locate the root of the issue.
“Obviously with my history of concussions, knowing the event I had in Michigan, that wreck right there is where they believe I picked up this issue,” Earnhardt said. “I didn’t feel anything that next week. We had an off week, I went to Germany, raced in Sonoma and felt great, ran good, felt awesome. It was strange to me why these symptoms came out of nowhere.”
Earnhardt said he has never had a concussion where the symptoms took so long to form because usually he feels them immediately.
“This is scary for me because of the way it’s been different,” he said. “I’m having balance issues. I’ve never had balance issues before.”
Hendrick Motorsports has yet to release who will drive the No. 88 Chevrolet in this Sunday’s Cheez-It 355 at Watkins Glen International, but an official announcement is expected on Tuesday or Wednesday.
Overall, the road to recovery has been an up-and-down process for Earnhardt.
View video“There are days when you’re feeling positive,” he said. “There are days when you’re frustrated. That certainly comes and goes with the process. There are days where I feel like my balance is better, and there are certainly days when it’s not. But I’m very impatient, and I want change now. I want improvement now. So I’m constantly texting my doctor, telling him everything I experience every day, going, ‘What can I do to get better tomorrow?’ He’s like, ‘Look, you’ve got to realize this might be a process.'”
Earnhardt feels unbalanced largely because of his battle with “gaze stability.” He has gradually improved his vision with medical treatment and daily physical exercises at home.
“When I first got checked out and was walking into hospital lobbies and halls, that drives the symptoms pretty heavily,” he said. “After an hour or two, your brain calms down and regroups and gets ahold of the situation and the symptoms calm back down. Anywhere you go where there is a lobby and a lot of movement, a lot of chatter and things happening, you’re in motion, your head’s turning, you’re observing and looking at a lot of different things. That really drives the symptoms up. So my doctor wants me to get exposure. He wants me to go to the grocery store with Amy and basically just live.”
Earnhardt said he has been trying to get out as much as possible, whether to visit his JR Motorsports shop or go out to eat in crowded restaurants with family, based on his doctor’s recommendation.
“He said, ‘Go and live your life and don’t shy away from things because you think it’s going to make you feel bad,'” Earnhardt said. “‘Go there and if it makes you feel bad, that’s fine. Go there, but just don’t make yourself sick.’
“It worries me that people don’t know what I’m dealing with and I want them to know why I can’t drive. I’ll talk to my doctors and say, ‘What do I have left as far as the racing?’Â My doctors are confident they can make me stronger than I was before this event. I want to race more.”