CONCORD, N.C. (AP) - Dale Earnhardt Jr. grew
up one town away from Charlotte Motor Speedway, running wild with his
friends through the infield as his daddy thrilled the hometown crowd.
He became NASCAR's most
popular driver, the only North Carolina native who drives full-time in a
series whose origins lie in part in the souped-up cars bootleggers used
to outrun police as they moved moonshine around the state.
Earnhardt won't be at the
track on Saturday night. He will miss two races after a doctor benched
him because of two concussions over the past six weeks. It marks the
first time an Earnhardt won't race at Charlotte since 1978 - and the
first time an Earnhardt won't run a Cup race since the 1979 Southern
500.
The show will go on without
him, but it remains to be seen how many people come to watch. A week
after Talladega's announced attendance was its smallest since figures
have been provided, CMS officials were faced with the task of selling
tickets to an Earnhardt-less race.
"The good news is we have
not had a mass exodus of fans, or cancellations of tickets," track
president Marcus Smith said Friday. "We have had a lot of fans saying
how much they hate that this has happened to Dale Jr., and now they'll
just pull for their second favorite driver on Saturday night."
This is a unique situation
for NASCAR, which last had a top-tier driver sidelined in 2010 when
Brian Vickers, another North Carolina native, was diagnosed with blood
clots. But drivers play hurt in almost every other circumstance in
NASCAR because the stakes are so high.
In the early days, running
the race meant collecting a share of the purse at the end of the night
and buying groceries that week. As the sport progressed, and drivers
became so dependent on sponsorship, missing a start could put a deal in
danger.
And now, in the age of the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship, missing a race will take a driver out of title contention.
That's the dilemma
Earnhardt faced on Aug. 29 when he crashed hard into the wall during a
tire test at Kansas. He admitted this week that he suffered a concussion
in that wreck, but didn't seek treatment because of his championship
chances. He was third in points at the time, and the start of the Chase
was just three weeks away.
If a doctor said he couldn't race, his entire season would go to waste.
"With the Chase coming up, I
didn't know how difficult - if I was to volunteer myself to get medical
attention and be removed from the car, I didn't know how difficult it
would be to get back in," he said.
After a 25-car accident on
the last lap of Sunday's race at Talladega left him with a lingering
headache, he put his fate in the hands of neurosurgeon, who said the
risk was too great for Earnhardt to race Saturday night or next week at
Kansas. Earnhardt will be replaced in the beloved No. 88 Chevrolet by
Regan Smith the next two weeks, and he said he'll stay home Saturday
night so he is not a distraction to the team.
NASCAR acknowledged it will
re-visit its procedures since Earnhardt raced for six weeks following
his first concussion. It praised him for stepping up and seeking medical
attention this week as he marked his 38th birthday.
"I think you saw a driver
who is racing for a championship, who is our most popular driver, get up
here and ask to go see a doctor and get out of a car. That takes a lot
of guts," said senior vice president Steve O'Donnell. "I think it also
shows where our sport has come, and they know that safety is first and
foremost. We know it's a dangerous sport, but we've got to be relying on
our drivers too to be up front with us."
But there's a danger
involved with not being up front with NASCAR that differs from other
sports. Driving a car injured at nearly 200 mph doesn't carry the same
implications as, say, lining up on the football field. There is a
distinct danger to others.
"The temptation is to
persevere though adversity," said points leader Brad Keselowski. "But
sometimes you compete through an injury and perpetuate whatever damage
there is. Or, even worse, risk those around you.
"The difference in our
sport is that when you're unable to make great decisions or you lose
your focus, the potential is there for others to get hurt. If you can't
focus (in football), you miss the play. In racing, if you can't focus,
you knock the wall down or you wreck somebody."
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