#88-Dale Earnhardt Jr. is suffering from balance issues and nausea, but a test that measures his cognitive function showed optimistic results, the Hendrick Motorsports driver said Sunday night. Earnhardt, speaking on his weekly race recap podcast ‘The Dale Jr. Download’ released Monday, described what kept him out of the race car this past weekend at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. He did not give a timetable for his return from concussion-like symptoms, possibly caused by wrecks June 12 at Michigan and July 2 at Daytona. Earnhardt said the results of his ImPACT test, a 20-minute test that measures memory, reaction time, attention span and other cognitive skills, have matched his baseline, so that is encouraging.
‘My results matched my baseline, which made me feel confident that my brain is pretty sharp; it feels good,’ Earnhardt said. ‘The symptoms I have are balance and nausea. I struggled with my balance over the last four, five days and I definitely wouldn’t be able to drive a race car this weekend.’
‘They can give me a lot of exercises that retrain my brain to handle what I need to handle ‘ it’s just going to take a lot of patience,’ Earnhardt said. ‘I take my health and quality of life as a top priority. ‘¦ I am going to take this slow and strictly take the advice of my doctors.’(ESPN.com)
