Jarrett Injured but will race UPDATE: Dale Jarrett suffered an injury to his right side rib area during Happy Hour practice for the Coca-Cola 600 Saturday at Lowes Motor Speedway. The injury was not the result of an accident. Jarrett expects to be able to race in the Coca-Cola 600. According to Jarretts spokesperson Kris Johnson, Jarrett felt a pop just below his right rib area, and is extremely sore. Johnson also said Jarrett fully expects to race tomorrow and complete the entire 600 miles(NASCAR.com), Jarrett was 10th fastest in Happy Hour with a speed of 175.143mph(5-26-2001) UPDATE: Dale Jarrett intends to race in the Coca-Cola 600 on Sunday despite a broken rib on his right side. “I was going into Turn 3 and I just felt a pop,” Jarrett said of what happened to him during a Saturday morning practice session at Lowe’s Motor Speedway. “I don’t know if it’s from a previous injury or something from the other night.” Jarrett crashed his #88 during his first qualifying lap on Thursday night, backing it into the Turn 4 wall after spinning in Turn 3. “It’s on my right side, so it doesn’t make sense that it would have happened the other night, but you don’t know,” Jarrett said. “I had no indication. I worked out (Friday) and lifted weights and ran like I normally would and had no problems.” Jarrett said he was going into Turn 3 on a practice lap in the second of two sessions held Saturday morning and felt a pop as he turned the car’s wheel. “It was hard to catch my breath,” he said. “I ran about four more laps and then told them I couldn’t do any more right then.” Jarrett went to a rehabilitation trailer run by Motor Racing Outreach for treatment. He later had it checked by a physician who confirmed the rib was broken. “When you have a broken rib and you know that, there’s not much more you can do for it,” Jarrett said. “I feel I’ll start and my plan is to finish. With the amount of time we have here, we’ll be OK.” Jarrett tried putting on a flak jacket to help him feel better, but said it didn’t help. “The pain really comes whenever I go to turn the wheel,” he said. “The only thing the flak jacket was going to do was to keep from furthering the injury. I need something that is going to help kind of tie this together, so when I do go to turn the wheel that I’m not going to get that much pain. If it’s just some pain and I can breathe, that’s fine. But what I had this morning wasn’t something I would feel comfortable with for 600 miles.” He plans to use electronic stimulation to treat the injury Sunday, then put some extra padding in his seat for the race(That’s Racin’) UPDATE 2: FSN reposts that 2000 BGN Champ Jeff Green will stand by for Jarrett(5-27-2001)
