Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, July 10, 1993 TAG: 9307100081
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LOUDON, N.H. LENGTH: Medium
Bonnett held a news conference Friday at New Hampshire International Speedway to announce he was cleared to drive in a race by NASCAR after a medical examination on Tuesday by Dr. Jerry Petty in Charlotte, N.C.
Bonnett, 46, suffered a severe concussion in a crash at Darlington in April 1990. He had amnesia for several weeks and suffered dizziness and ringing in his ears for more than two years.
"I've had so many CAT scans and MRIs I'm probably glowing if you turn the lights off," he said. "But I've gotten progressively better and better and better. I don't think a year ago I could have done it, and six months ago was questionable."
The dizziness and ringing in his ears have stopped, Bonnett said, and, "I haven't had any problems testing.
"I'm not making a comeback," he said. "I'm not going to run 30 races a year or 15 or 10," he said. "I'm going to Talladega and just have a good time. I might run [only] half of that race. I just want to see where I'm at."
Bonnett has been doing a lot of testing of Earnhardt's cars this year and team owner Richard Childress said this is a way of repaying him for the work.
At Talladega, Bonnett will be in the car Earnhardt drove to a second-place finish in the Daytona 500. It will carry the No. 31, Childress said, and Earnhardt's Grand National crew will service the car. Plans for a sponsor still are being completed.
Bonnett said he is not worried about another wreck and did not ask Petty whether the 1990 concussion makes him more susceptible to injury.
"You can't worry about things happening," Bonnett said. "I don't think you can ever be in one of those things and ever worry about being hurt."
\ BEST-LAID PLANS: Brett Bodine has dropped plans to try to start his own Winston Cup team for 1994 and is negotiating for a new contract with his current employer, car owner Kenny Bernstein.
"We just ran out of time" to form a team, Bodine said Friday.
Bodine, 34, has driven for Bernstein since 1990, winning his only race at North Wilkesboro in 1990. He said he's "absolutely" optimistic he will return in 1994 in Bernstein's Ford Thunderbird.
\ JUST LIKE '92: While Jeff Burton was stealing the "Winston Cup debut" spotlight as the sixth-fastest qualifier Friday, 1992 Grand National champion Joe Nemechek was quietly making good on his own entry into NASCAR's big league.
Nemechek qualified 15th for his first Winston Cup race in a Chevrolet Lumina.
"We just wanted to get in the race, and this is a big confidence boost," Nemechek said. "This may be the best I've ever qualified here."
Incidentally, the winners of the two Grand National races here last year were Nemechek and Burton.
\ JOHNSON SOUNDS OFF: As you might expect, Junior Johnson was not impressed with NASCAR's handling of the cheating scandal involving Ken Schrader's team at Daytona.
"Bill France Jr. [president of NASCAR] is jerking the strings on that just like he was jerking the strings with me two years ago," Johnson said. "All them people are directed by NASCAR."
Schrader and his car owner, Joe Hendrick, were suspended by NASCAR for four races July 1 when an illegal carburetor and intake manifold were found on his car after qualifying for the Pepsi 400. But a three-member panel of the National Stock Car Racing Commission, an adjunct of NASCAR, lifted the suspensions Tuesday.
Johnson had no such luck when NASCAR inspectors found a slightly oversized engine in his team's car after The Winston in 1991. He and crew chief Tim Brewer were suspended for four races.
Keywords:
AUTO RACING
by CNB