CHICAGO — Ryan Blaney says he suffered concussion-like symptoms after his crash into a concrete wall last weekend at Nashville Superspeedway and that the doctor who helped Dale Earnhardt Jr. through his concussion helped Blaney.
Dr. Michael “Micky” Collins, who established the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center’s Sports Medicine Concussion program and has worked with NASCAR drivers, advised Blaney this past week.
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“Dr. Collins felt good about it Monday (the day after the crash) when he talked to me,” Blaney said Saturday. “He had some concerns, but he didn’t feel like there was ever really a point where I was going to sit out (this week). He didn’t see anything too severe where I didn’t have to go to Pittsburgh.
“But there were a couple of things in my eyes that he didn’t really like. You just feel kind of foggy. You kind of feel out of it. The exercises he gave me to do, essentially at the end of the day it’s a muscle and you have to work that muscle out.
“The way he approaches it is pretty unique. Go into noisy areas and light conditions and work out and put yourself in these situations with a lot of people. That is going to help you out. It’s not good to sit in a dark room. It’s not going to get you better. Having that advice and going and doing it really sped up the process, which was ideal to get me here this weekend.”
That’s the treatment Noah Gragson said he followed when he suffered concussion-like symptoms after his crash at World Wide Technology Raceway last month. He sat out the Sonoma race before returning at Nashville.
Blaney also talked with NASCAR and track officials about the inside wall in Turn 1 at Nashville not having a SAFER barrier. He said he talked with NASCAR President Steve Phelps, NASCAR Chief Operating Officer Steve O’Donnell and Marcus Smith, president and chief executive officer of Speedway Motorsports, which owns Nashville Superspeedway.
Earlier this week, Elton Sawyer, NASCAR senior vice president of competition, called it “unacceptable” that the concrete barrier that Blaney hit was not protected.
“Yeah, it’s unacceptable,” Blaney said Saturday. “We got these cars that we’ve been working on, it’s been a slow process trying to get them a little better safety-wise. You need to take all the different precautions you can. Short-term that’s go through your place and make sure there aren’t any barriers like that.
“Like I said last week, it’s a shame something has to happen to get a reaction like that and to go change it up. Marcus told me they’re going to go through all their tracks and make sure they don’t have anything bare like. If they do, they’re going to fix it. The same with all the NASCAR tracks. It’s nice that they’re doing something and taking action. It’s shame something had to happen.”
Kevin Harvick, who has been vocal about safety issues in the past, said there is more that tracks can do to avoid a similar situation.
“I think that spot should have been covered,” Harvick said Saturday about the wall Blaney hit. “We’ve gone to some of these new racetracks and had bare walls. That probably just needs to be done a little more aggressively in order to make those situations right. Just a firm reminder that we can hit anything.
“You’re not guarding for the everyday accident, obviously it helps them, but you’re guarding for the weird incidents like we had with Kyle Busch in Daytona (in 2015 that injured Busch when he hit a concrete wall inside Turn 1 there). Ryan’s was very similar to that. I think that’s what you’re looking for. Definitely needs to be little bit more thorough on that side of erring to too much and not enough.”
Blaney will start 17th in Sunday’s Cup race on the streets of Chicago (5 p.m. ET, NBC and Peacock).