Jerry Nadeau

[Queen Prawn]

Has anyone here who pays attention to NASCAR (or might have heard something on a sports channel of some sort) hear any updates on Jerry? It sounds pretty bad, but hopefully it isn't as bad as NASCAR is making it to be. It makes me really nervous though that after cutting him out of his car, he was making no obvious movement.

 

Last word is that he is in critical condition after being flown to the local hospital. I guess they are waiting for his wife to arrive at the hospital before releasing any information (she was at her grandfather's funeral in South Carolina and NASCAR sent a plane to get her to the hospital).

[Soxfest]

Not hearing much info

[Guest hotsoxchick1]

have not heard a word.. but i remember when this happened to young petty.. it was pretty much mumms the word too till everyone in the family was there.......and he died..... i hope jeremy is ok.......i checked the nascar site and they dont have anything on it either as far as condition updates......was a pretty nasty crash though.........

[Guest hotsoxchick1]

this is all i have found yet on the subject.........

 

NASCAR fears worst in Nadeau crackup

By Chris Jenkins, USA TODAY

RICHMOND, Va. — NASCAR Winston Cup series driver Jerry Nadeau is listed in critical condition at a hospital after crashing during a practice session at Richmond International Raceway Friday afternoon. "The doctors have told us there is the potential for some serious injuries," NASCAR spokesman Jim Hunter said.

 

Jerry Nadeau is pulled out from his car after crashing during practice for the Pontiac 400 at Richmond International Raceway.

By Steve Helber, AP

 

Nadeau's car crashed at about 5:10 p.m. ET, 10 minutes into the second of three practice sessions held at the track in preparation for Saturday night's race. Safety crews had to cut the roof off of Nadeau's car to remove him. Nadeau's car, which was taken out of the track's infield on a flatbed truck, was completely caved in on the driver's side.

 

Nadeau arrived by ambulence at the speedway's infield care center at approximately 5:20, and Nadeau was transported by helicopter to Virginia Commonwealth University's Medical College of Virginia Hospital in downtown Richmond for "further observation" approximately 10 minutes later.

 

Nadeau's special mission

 

Jerry Nadeau, 32, is a native of Danbury, Conn. His team is sponsored by the U.S. Army, and visited wounded soldiers at Walter Reed Hospital in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday.

 

Nadeau, along with a small group of drivers, were among the first members of the public allowed to visit recently rescued prisoner of war Jessica Lynch.

 

“I was amazed,” Nadeau said earlier Friday. “She looked nothing like she did on TV.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nadeau's wife, Jada, arrived in Richmond by plane from South Carolina just before 11 p.m. Friday. The two had their first child, Natalie, in February.

 

Nadeau's car spun by itself between the track's first and second turns, hitting the wall on the driver's side. Although Richmond International Raceway is a short 3/4-mile track where racing speeds are relatively low, it produces some of the hardest hits in NASCAR.

 

The three hardest hits NASCAR officials have recorded since installing black box-style crash data recorders in cars before last season have all come at tracks of less than a mile in length. Kyle Petty's accident at Martinsville earlier this year, measured at approximately 80 times the force of gravity, is the hardest officials have recorded. The other two, accidents involving Busch series driver Derrike Cope and Cup series driver Sterling Marlin, came at Richmond.

 

At least four drivers in NASCAR's top three series sustained significant injuries in accidents at Richmond last year — Cope, Marlin, Johnny Benson, who is Nadeau's teammate, and Bobby Hamilton.

 

Earlier this season, officials expressed optimism that the impact-absorbing SAFER barrier system, which successfully dulled the force of crashes in Indy Racing League and NASCAR races at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway last year, would be ready for installation at Richmond this spring. However, researchers have not been completely satisfied with the results from recent crash tests of the barrier, which had to be modified to fit the tighter turns found on shorter tracks.

 

Busch series driver Jason Keller practiced in Nadeau's backup car in Friday's final practice session and may substitute for him in Saturday's race.

[Mathew]

I hate Nascar but I hope this Kid's ok!

[southsider2k5]

-- Injured driver Jerry Nadeau remained in critical condition Sunday, two days after his car slammed into a wall during practice at Richmond International Raceway.

 

There were conflicting accounts of Nadeau's condition. The Associated Press reported Saturday that the driver was in intensive care with head, lung and rib injuries but that his vital signs were "very good."

 

But a source close to Nadeau, of Danbury, Conn., told the Hartford Courant that Nadeau was in an induced coma and has a skull fracture, and the prognosis as of Saturday afternoon was not good. The source also told the paper that a chaplain had been at the hospital most of Saturday.

 

"We're in a wait-and-see pattern," U.S. Army team spokesman David Ferroni told AP on Sunday.

 

Nadeau's wife, Jada, arrived at at Medical College of Virginia Hospitals late Friday night and his parents and sister also are at the hospital.

 

Neither NASCAR nor Nadeau's team have not given any details about the extent of Nadeau's injuries, and Ferroni told reporters he had no new information Sunday.

 

Before Saturday night's race, MB2-MBV Motorsports general manager Jay Frye said the team hoped it would know more by Sunday morning, when the results of new tests were known. Nadeau had good vital signs and was sedated while being put through a series of tests, Frye said Saturday.

 

Nadeau had not spoken since the accident, but acknowledged the presence of visitors by squeezing their hands, Frye said. Frye said team members and Nadeau's wife were encouraged after seeing him.

 

Nadeau got a hospital visit from Kyle Petty, Jeff Burton and NASCAR great Bobby Allison on Sunday. The drivers visited Nadeau the morning after the Pontiac Excitement 400, which was won by Joe Nemechek.

 

Nadeau had qualified 12th for the race. The team hired Busch Series regular Jason Keller to drive its backup car in the race, and Keller finished 32nd in his Winston Cup debut.

 

Nadeau was injured during the final practice for Saturday night's Pontiac Excitement 400 when his car skidded entering the first turn, spun and slammed into the wall between the first and second turns.

 

Rescue crews sawed the roof off his Pontiac, and Nadeau did not appear to be moving when he was lifted from the car strapped to a body board. He was being given oxygen through a bag, and his neck was in a brace. His uniform appeared to have been removed when he was loaded a short time later onto a helicopter and taken to the hospital.

 

Frye said it appeared the back end of Nadeau's car began to come around as he entered the first turn and tried to compensate by mashing the gas pedal to the floor, common practice for drivers trying not to crash.

 

"It looked like that helped accelerate it going backwards," he said.

 

NASCAR spokesman Jim Hunter said Nadeau was wearing a HANS device, a head and neck restraint made mandatory in October 2001 -- eight months after the death of seven-time Winston Cup champion Dale Earnhardt.

 

The team, Frye said, is coping by keeping busy.

 

"Sometimes when you go though a difficult time, being busy's better," he said. "We've got to continue and that's the way Jerry would want it."

 

The accident occurred a few hours before the Busch series race on the track Friday night. The event had a record 14 caution flags for 93 laps.

 

"It's not the safest sport," said Kyle Petty, whose 19-year-old son Adam was killed in a crash while practicing for a Busch Series race at Loudon, N.H., in May 2000. "But we know that, and we accept that."

 

NASCAR impounded the car and was transporting it to its research and development center in Concord, N.C., for further testing, Hunter said.

 

Investigators already have ruled out early speculation that the accident was caused by a stuck throttle or a blown tire, he said.

 

Nadeau was racing in the clear when he lost control of his car.

 

Nadeau, a one-time winner in his sixth full season on NASCAR's top circuit, earned his only victory in the final race at Atlanta in 2000.

 

His best season in Winston Cup was 2001, when he had four top-five and 10 top-10 finishes in 34 races as a Hendrick Motorsports teammate to four-time series champion Jeff Gordon. Nadeau finished 17th in points.

 

After parting ways with Hendrick last season, he landed in a ride with Petty Enterprises in June and was on his way to an easy victory in Sonoma, Calif., when a gear broke in his car with two laps left.

 

It was just another bad break in his Winston Cup career: He ran out of gas while leading on the final lap of the 2001 season finale in Atlanta. A few months earlier, he'd been dominant in the inaugural race at Chicago when he lost his motor

[Heads22]

He's up to serious-but-stable.