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Why? What use is it to you at that point? I'm gonna donate mine. twitter.com/mafinuca/statu…
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Earnhardt, 41, like many veteran NASCAR drivers, is no stranger to hard crashes and head injuries similar to what football players endured before being diagnosed with Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy post-mortem.
In 2002, Earnhardt got a concussion in the Fontana race in April but did not disclose the injury until September while continuing to race. Ten years later, Earnhardt had two concussions in six weeks, one he self-diagnosed at a tire test in Kansas and another after a big crash at Talladega. Afterward, he voluntarily went to a doctor for an evaluation and had to sit out two Chase races in October because of the injury.
While Earnhardt shows no ill effects of the concussions thanks to NASCAR's improved safety, other drivers aren't so lucky. Hall of Famer Fred Lorenzen was found to have dementia in 2009 along with short-term memory loss. His family has met with NASCAR officials to discuss his declining health.
Lorenzen is an example of drivers that might have endured pain to repeated head injuries in a race car at a time when barrier-softening technology was non-existent as cars crashed head-on into concrete walls at high speeds.
Last year, J.D. Gibbs, president of Joe Gibbs Racing and son of the Hall of Fame football coach, began treatment for symptoms affecting his speech and brain function that might have stemmed from playing football and participating in racing and extreme sports. The younger Gibbs is no longer running the team's day-to-day operations and rarely appears at the track.
Other former NASCAR drivers that have been affected by repeated head injuries include Bobby Allison, LeeRoy Yarbrough, Dick Trickle, Jerry Nadeau and Ricky Craven.
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