By Compiled from Times wires
Published May 23, 2003
RICHMOND, Va. - Winston Cup driver Jerry Nadeau has regained consciousness and is speaking again, nearly three weeks after he crashed during practice at Richmond International Raceway.
Jay Frye, general manager of Nadeau's team, visited the driver Tuesday at Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center. Nadeau had been semiconscious in previous visits.
"The difference since the last time I saw Jerry was incredible," Frye said Thursday. "It was an emotional and wonderful feeling when he made the first move to shake my hand. Yesterday he was hugging and kissing his daughter (3-month-old Natalie Kate) and had pizza for dinner."
Nadeau, 32, was critically injured May 2 when his car hit the wall driver's side first. He was upgraded to fair condition May 8 and regained full consciousness this week. He sustained head, lung, rib and shoulder injuries and is having physical rehabilitation and speech therapy, team spokesman Dave Ferroni said.
WASHED AWAY: All activities at Lowe's Motor Speedway were rained out Thursday, including qualifying for the Winston Cup Coca-Cola 600.
Today the track will hold a 100-mile ARCA race at 9 a.m., then practice and qualifying for Winston Cup and Busch Grand National cars. Qualifying for Sunday's Coca-Cola 600 is scheduled for 1 p.m. today, followed by qualifying for Saturday's Carquest 300.
Today's forecast calls for a 60 percent chance of rain early in the afternoon. SUSPENDED: Craftsman Truck driver Tim Woods III was suspended until June 18 after an altercation in a Late Model race Saturday at Irwindale (Calif.) Speedway.
Woods and another driver collided while racing for the lead. Woods was ordered to the back of the field for a restart. Instead, he circled the track until the race was stopped and a wrecker was summoned to remove Woods' car. As the wrecker approached, Woods began spinning donuts on the track and in the pits until his car had mechanical problems.
As his car was towed, Woods walked to the frontstretch and sat on the track, forcing another red flag. Police eventually removed Woods from the track.
ELLIOTT READY: Bill Elliott used one crutch to navigate his way through the deep puddles at LMS. But neither the rain nor a broken left foot kept him away. "It feels pretty good," Elliott said, pulling off his sock to show his crew his swollen foot. "It looks a lot better today than it has yet."
Elliott broke his foot in an accident during The Winston on Saturday night, but has no plans to miss the Coca-Cola 600.
There was talk that team owner Ray Evernham could use his former driver, Casey Atwood, as a standby but Atwood is too small to fit into Elliott's seat. So every driver change would require a time-consuming seat change.
Atwood has not completely ended his relationship with Evernham, but was out of work this season until Fitz-Bradshaw Racing hired him to drive the No. 82 Chevrolet in the Busch Grand National series.
MOST POPULAR: Dale Earnhardt Jr. leads fan balloting for the NASCAR Most Popular Driver Award. With more than 700,000 cast, Earnhardt Jr. leads Jeff Gordon, Kevin Harvick and Tony Stewart. Rounding out the top 10 are Steve Park, Mark Martin, Michael Waltrip, Kyle Petty, Ricky Rudd and Dale Jarrett.
"It's cool to hear about the voting so far," Earnhardt said. "It's kind of like running for the Winston Cup title this year - it feels good to be near the front, but it's also early in the season, so I don't want to get too confident."
Earnhardt led the voting most of last year before a late surge from Elliott fans carried the veteran to the honor for a record 16th time. Elliott retired his name from voting this season.
