Riley Herbst confirmed Saturday at Darlington Raceway that he was diagnosed with a concussion following his crash at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Herbst passed his tests leading into last weekend’s race at Daytona and participated in qualifying, but said his symptoms returned Saturday morning and were the worst he had experienced since the accident. He withdrew from the race and was replaced by Harrison Burton.
Herbst said he has had no symptoms this week and has been cleared to return to competition at Darlington.
How is your health?
“Thank you. It’s good. No symptoms this week, back to 100%. So, yeah, concussion free.”
What was it? Was it a concussion?
“I got diagnosed with a concussion after the wreck in Loudon, and I thought that I was cleared to, to pass. I passed all my tests the week leading up to Daytona. Obviously, I qualified in the race car, and had really fast speed, and then I woke up Saturday morning, feeling really, really rough with trouble with all the symptoms, the worst I’ve had since the wreck. So, I thought it was the best idea for me to step out and let Harrison (Burton) drive the race car, but back to being 100%.”
You did some track time on Thursday with some ride alongs. Was everything okay?
“We were at the sim, so I’ve been into sim every single day this week. No symptoms, I’ve worked out every single day this week, no symptoms, and yeah, I did those little ride alongs on Thursday with no symptoms, so obviously nobody knows until you hop in the race car, but I’ve been cleared of all activities and looking forward to completing another Southern 500.”
Can you share when concussion like symptoms started to appear and when the diagnosis was, just the timeline of that after the wreck?
“I don’t really know. They come and go. Concussions are a super weird health issue, health problem that honestly, it’s an evolving matter. It’s not like you can x-ray your arm and see a broken bone or see it not broken. It’s all about how you feel in one day, you can feel 100%, and then I can wake up Saturday morning, like I did last week, and struggle to get out of bed. So, yeah, it was a rough process, but obviously I think myself, NASCAR, Atrium Health, we all did the right thing last week and taken me out of the race car for the betterment of myself and obviously the field of race car drivers, but you just kind of have to rest, rest, rest, and hopefully you can beat the symptoms sooner than you want.”
Initially after the wreck, did you feel any symptoms at that point or did it just appear on Saturday?
“Leaving the Infield Care Center, and then the following Monday and Tuesday was rough and I thought I was over it by Wednesday night, Thursday morning, but ultimately I wasn’t.”
—Toyota Racing—