Replies

(I didn't know all they had to run was one lap for points)

Healing, not racing, should be Dale Jr.'s biggest concern

Darrell Waltrip / AllWaltrip.com
Posted: 5 hours ago

Darrell Waltrip: Burns are very painful — depending on where they are — but I think he will be OK to drive.
The bigger issue is the healing process. A burn takes time to heal from the inside out, and you don't want to irritate it every weekend. If I had a concern, it wouldn't be whether he can drive or not. I would be more concerned with how much time it takes for a burn to heal. If you agitate it every week, you could end up with a bigger problem like an infection.

One year after one Daytona wreck forced him out of his car early at Pocono the next race, Darrell Waltrip survived this wreck at the World Center of Racing in 1991. Click here for more information about the photo. (Bill Blose/DWStore.com)
If I were Dale Earnhardt Jr., and the burns are significant, I would think about starting the race, running to the first caution and getting somebody in the car. I would try not to aggravate those burns and make them worse than they already are.

At Pocono in 1990, I was only out of the hospital for 10 days, and my team had to literally pick me up and stick me down in the car because I had broken my leg and ribs at Daytona. Jeff Hammond and the crew had to do the same thing to get me out of it so Jimmy Horton could drive the rest of the race.

It just doesn't make any sense to me to put a guy through that kind of anguish just for one lap, and it doesn't make any sense because it affects the whole team. It can take your team out of contention. It can affect your whole year, and it can cost you the championship.

If a driver had to drive over half the race to get points, that's one thing. But all he has to do is make a lap to get the points for a whole race. It makes no sense to me. It never has, and it never will. I'm not creating a new scenario. This problem has been going on for years, and situations like Dale Jr.'s make you realize that since we're in the rule changing business this year, we might want to correct this one.