Dale Earnhardt Jr. Says Recovery Going Well with Steady Improvement

Dale Earnhardt Jr., driver of the No.88 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports, has not been cleared to drive for the rest of the 2016 NASCAR season due to a concussion.           

Junior, who has been seeing doctors and concussion specialists at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, says his recovery is going really well and he is starting to see improvements. He added while it feels like it has lasted a long time, it has only been a short period of time and gains made in that short time give him confidence he is going in the right direction.  

“All the stuff and hard work we are doing is paying off,” Junior quoted. “It certainly fun to be here at the race track and to be able to see the team and be in this atmosphere that you get so used to being in week-in and week-out.  I’m happy to be here today and it certainly is a place where you get pretty good exposure and it drives your symptoms a little bit so I’m getting some good exercise as we speak.  It has been a real interesting experience and I’ve learned a ton.  I have a lot of respect for Micky (Collins) and his group and the direction that they are giving me is really working.

“I struggled with my eyes for a while and I’m starting to see improvements there which I was thrilled to wake up one day and feel a difference and start to see improvement there.  Riding in a car or walking to gain stability that I’ve talked about before is starting to improve, which was a major relief for me because that was probably the most difficult thing to deal with throughout the day because it was there 24 hours a day.  My balance is miles better than it was when I first went to see Micky.  We do a lot of exercises every single day.  Amy (Reimann, Fiancé) has been there every step of the way pushing me to stay focused and to realize the progress we have made and to keep working hard.  It’s been a good experience and I’m looking forward to getting well and definitely on the right track.”

Dr. Michael “Micky” Collins, PH.D, is an international know expert in sports related concussions. He established his association with the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center in 2000 and has treated several professional athlete from all over the country including Junior when he suffered concussion like symptoms a few years ago.

“We have learned a tremendous amount about concussions over the last five or ten years and we understand this injury could happen to anyone,” Dr. Collins added.   “What happens with a concussion is the brain moves inside the skull and when the brain moves inside the skull we have learned a number of chemical changes that happen to the neurons or the cells in the brain and at the end of the day what occurs is there is an energy problem with the cells.  We have actually learned now that there are six different clinical profiles or different types of concussions that we see.  They can be cognitive issues or thinking problems.  They can be problems with something called the vestibular system in the brain, which allows Dale to interpret movement and motion and stabilizes his vision when he moves his head and interpret complex visual information.

“The third type of concussion is ocular or your eye movements, actually moving your eyes in tandem, bringing your eyes together diverging your vision.  The fourth type of concussion is migraine.  The fifth type is neck and the sixth subtype can be anxiety and mood related problems.  When I first saw Dale a month and a half ago I can tell you he was pretty sick.  He was having problems with the vestibular system, with the ocular system and with some anxiety and mood issues that is very much associated with these problems.  We have made progress with this injury to the point where we actually matched treatments to the different types of concussions that can occur and we have very specific treatments that can treat these different problems that Dale’s experiencing. In fact, over the last two or three weeks I’m pleased to tell you that the fruits of that labor are now paying off.  Dale has been a model patient.”

Collins went on to say Earnhardt has been working hard, being diligent in following instructions given. 

“When I first saw Dale, my goal was to see Dale become a human being again and I can tell you with confidence that is occurring in front of our eyes,” Collins continued. “He is feeling better.  He can tolerate a lot more.  He is having fewer and fewer symptoms and is doing very well.  To me that is the number one goal is to get Dale feeling as normal as a human being.  The second goal is Dale becoming a race car driver again.  Yes, we will be working on that as well.  I’m very confident that we are moving in the right direction in that respect.”          

The Mooresville, North Carolina native states he knew when he went back to see Dr. Collins, he had a strong feeling it would be like the previous time when he saw him. He says he originally thought Dr. Collins and his team would work with him to get better and in a short amount of time he would be back behind the wheel of his car before the end of the season. However, as the evaluations continued, he realized this time around it was going to take a bit more time and process before he would be cleared to race again.    

“I think it’s the right decision considering how I feel personally and physically,” Junior stated. “I definitely don’t belong in a race car today by any stretch of the imagination.  You don’t know how long this process is going to take and we want to be healthy and able to compete at some point, but also we don’t want to take any risks and re-injury ourselves or put ourselves in a situation where we can basically erase all the hard work that we have done to get better.  Mickey can talk more about the decision that we made since the last evaluation.

“No, I mean I’m going through the process so I know how I feel and how I need to feel and how I’m supposed to feel so I’m not shocked.  I’m not hearing things from Micky that I don’t already know about myself.  I’m very disappointed.  I miss my guys, I miss the garage, I miss all of you folks (the media).  It’s so much fun to see so many familiar faces.  That part is the disappointing part because I am just used to being here and this is sort of our circle, our family.  It’s been weird not being at the track.  Again, I would love to be competing with my guys.  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.”

Collins added the last meeting between him and Earnhardt was on August 24, and stated at that time he noticed based on his test results and findings things were not looking how the doctor would’ve hoped. 

“We have very specific data that we look at in terms of these different systems that I referred to earlier,” Dr. Collins continued. “Dale is a competitor.  He wants to be back in a race car like no other.  The stress that he puts on himself for that is very apparent when I sit down and talk to Dale, he wants to race.  I felt that myself and Dr. Petty, who is also treating Dale, the neurosurgeon and our treatment team at the University of Pittsburgh we have a pretty robust team.  We sat down and 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.  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.”     

Dr. Collins last treated the two-time Daytona 500 champion in 2012, and was glad this time he came back to see him because he already knew his history and would help better to treat him.

“I can tell you some of the exam findings and findings that we found with this injury were different, they were more extensive,” Dr. Collins added.   “Different types of injuries that we see and now you understand better perhaps why that is there are different types of concussions.  We see different symptom profiles.  The injury at Michigan kind of broke the seal on this injury and when we saw him he was having a lot of problems, but clearly we are seeing Dale improve at this point in time and we are excited about his progress.”

Before Dr. Collins will clear Junior to drive again there is more improvement needed to be made.   He says the American driver will be need to improve his concentration focus, which is to be able to maintain focus and stabilize his vision when he moves his head as well as being able to interpret complex visual information.

“Though Dale is feeling as a normal human being to get him to that level of being a race car driver is exactly to your point it is a different set of skills than any of us in this room have,” Dr. Collins said. “I’m very confident that we will be able to do that.  Right now it doesn’t really, I don’t have specific criteria because that is a ways… we have time.  But, yes, I can tell you we are going to need to stress the systems enough to see if they produce any problems and actually rehab those systems enough to where he is not going to run into problems with this injury.  I feel confident that we are heading in that direction.”

Even though the two-time XFINITY Series Champion cannot race in the race car, it does not mean he won’t be at the track. He states he will be there even though it is hard to be and not being able to climb behind the wheel.   

“Well, I think any race car driver would tell you if they are not in the car it’s really weird to be at the race track,” Junior concluded.  “I feel, even though I love to see my guys and I know they are happy to see me today, I feel like a bit of a distraction and taking them off of their focus to get their car in tech and all that good stuff.  I won’t be able to not stay away from the race track.  I think that I have a vested interest in how well the team does the future of the team and its success and I want to be a part of that.  I want to be a witness to what they are doing and what we are trying to learn as a company we are trying to always get better so I want to be a witness to that.

“It is just very strange.  Doug Duchardt (General Manager of Hendrick Motorsports) prodded me to come to the Tuesday debriefs and it just feels really weird because I’m the only guy in there that really didn’t go to the race track or drive a car, but it does help me to at least stay on the same page and up to speed with what the company is doing and what we are trying to learn.  I understand the importance of that.  Micky has said that I can basically do everything that I want to do and go everywhere that I want to go. The more I do the more I stress those systems.  I’m trying, the worst thing I can do really is sit on the couch.  I tell Micky I feel awesome when I’m at home, but any time I leave the house, I lose about 20 percent if I’m rating myself on a scale from 1 to 100.

“He says do that more, push yourself and you will see those symptoms start to fade in those environments that are upsetting you.  So, I think coming to the race track would be a great thing for me and it’s just an odd feeling wondering what to do with yourself when you are there.  I love watching racing so I was a fan before I was a driver, so I will figure out a way to enjoy it until I can get back in that seat.”