Doctors told Jerry Nadeau a few weeks ago to find something else to do besides driving a race car. But that cold reality doesn’t preclude looking for work at a racetrack, and a new opportunity brought Nadeau back to New Hampshire International Speedway. “I’d say my career is pretty much over,” Nadeau said yesterday, sitting inside the hauler of the #01 U.S. Army Chevrolet he drove until May 2, 2003 at Richmond International Raceway. “My whole life I’ve been racing, so all I know how to do is that. My goal now is to be in the business of racing.” Nadeau might have discovered an industry niche this weekend. The Danbury, Conn., native returned to his home track to serve as a driver coach for Boston Reid, a 23-year-old prospect with Hendrick Motorsports in the Busch Series. “I enjoy doing that,” Nadeau, 34, said. “I’m not like another driver afraid to give out secrets because I may never do it again. When you come to the track and don’t do anything, it’s boring because I used to race all the time. So when I’m doing something, it’s good.” It was the first trip to a NASCAR race since Daytona for Nadeau, whose left side still tingles “24 hours a day.” It’s a lingering effect from smacking the wall on the driver’s side during Cup practice at RIR. Nadeau said healing from a head injury normally takes about 2½ years. While he has improved to walking and talking without difficulty, recent tests confirmed he isn’t close to 100 percent. “I should have been dead, but I didn’t die, so I’m alive and can’t do what I used to do,” he said. “It took me two years to figure it out.”(Richmond Times Dispatch)(7-16-2005)
