Driving Through PAIN R
But Rarely Keep Them From Competing ••
BY KENNY BRUCE
ichard Petty leans back in his chair and smiles that familiar smile amid
the heat and noise of the Cup garage at Kansas Speedway.
Nearly two decades after he ran his last
race, the 74-year-old is still very much the face of NASCAR. Te cowboy hat and sunglasses make him instantly recognizable in a sea of competitors, officials and fans. But it’s what people don’t see when they
look at one of the five inaugural members of NASCAR’s Hall of Fame that helps tell this story. Tey don’t see the damage left from a
cervical fracture, more commonly known as a broken neck. Nor do they see the scar tissue or reset bones that are the result of broken shoulder blades, a leg or wrist. Petty made 1,184 career starts in NASCAR’s
top series, more than any other driver. His 200 victories is a series record as well. Petty competed when he was in peak
physical condition, and he competed when he had absolutely no business being behind the wheel of a race car. “Of all the races we ran,” Petty says, “there
were probably 100 of them that I shouldn’t have been in the race car. At least 100 of them.”
How much pain is too much? Would you show up for work with eyes so
swollen that your eyelids had to be taped open? Would you continue to punch the time
clock if, like Petty, your neck was broken? For many of those that compete in
NASCAR, the answer to such inquiries would be, “Well, sure. If that’s what it took.” Even under the best conditions, Sprint
Cup Series drivers, and their brethren in the Nationwide and Truck Series, face monumental tasks each week as they climb behind the wheel. Tose tasks become much more difficult
when the party in question has been hobbled by injury. Unless an injury is so severe that it forces them to remain on the sidelines, driv- ers choose to continue to compete — putting pain and discomfort aside. Te official guide for driver behavior is
NASCAR’s Rule 17-3-A(3) and it states: A driver will be credited only with points earned in the car in which he/she started the race, and the starting driver will be credited with all points earned by that car in that race. To be eligible for points, the car must be entered by the entry deadline and the driver must start the race. A driver cannot receive points for
more than one (1) car in the race. In other words, if a driver wants to earn
points, he better buckle up. If injured, he must provide health information from his doctor to the NASCAR medical staff to obtain clearance to compete. But once he starts the race, he can remove himself from the car at any time and still receive the points earned by the team for that day’s race. Unofficially, there have been less than
two dozen occasions in which a driver has started a race and then turned the car over to a relief driver because of injury or illness. Tat’s an incredibly small number consider- ing the sport has been around since 1949 and had run 2,302 races through this year’s Brickyard 400. “You did it because that was your job,”
Petty says. “Everybody’s done it. It’s the competitive spirit. Football players are the same way. Something is hurt on every one of them at some time during a game. But they put it out of their mind, tape it up and go on down the road. “No matter how bad you are hurt, you
don’t want to get out of the car. It’s a personal deal. We’re so cocky, we aren’t going to admit that we can’t do the job.”
OCTOBER 2011 61 Injuries Might Slow Drivers,
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