DATE: Saturday, March 22, 1997              TAG: 9703220456

SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C3   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY BOB ZELLER, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: DARLINGTON, S.C.                  LENGTH:   51 lines

NEMECHEK DIES OF BRAIN INJURIES

The news that NASCAR Truck series driver John Nemechek had died Friday morning in Miami spread quietly through the garage at Darlington Raceway.

Word came early that Nemechek's condition had taken a turn for the worse, and his older brother, Winston Cup driver Joe Nemechek, left early Friday for Miami and turned his driving responsibilities over to Phil Parsons for the weekend.

John Nemechek, 27, had suffered a grave injury to his brain stem in Sunday's Florida Dodge Dealers 400 at Homestead Motorsports Park when his truck hit the outside wall driver's-side-first in a single-vehicle crash.

He never regained consciousness, but he had been put in a medically induced coma so doctors could chill his body in an effort to reduce swelling of the brain, a team spokesman said. When he was brought out of the coma, his brain began swelling again. Doctors operated in another effort to reduce the swelling but it was in vain.

Nemechek died at 11:30 a.m. from ``uncontrollable brain swelling secondary to severe brain injuries,'' said a statement from Dr. Stephen E. Olvey, medical director of the hospital's neuro-surgical care unit.

The news of Nemechek's death spread slowly through the garage.

TranSouth 400 pole-sitter Dale Jarrett did not find out until his pole-winner's interview, when he was asked about it.

``I didn't know that,'' he said, pausing for several long seconds as he tried to collect his thoughts. ``It certainly doesn't make this much fun. John was a fine young man, and when something like this happens, it takes some of the luster away from the fun we have.

``But part of what we have to do is go on and realize God has a plan, and sometimes we don't appreciate and understand things that go on that we have no control over.''

The drivers Friday strove to ignore the tragedy because they had to in order to perform at their best. So it was a business-as-usual atmosphere in the garage.

``To outsiders, it would look like nobody gives a damn,'' car owner Michael Kranefuss said. ``But the opposite is the truth. I can tell you that there is a high degree of feeling and concern about what happened, but out here, drivers don't want to show it, they don't want to talk about it and they don't want to hear about it.''

Funeral arrangements were incomplete Friday, but the Nemechek family requested that, in lieu of flowers, donations be sent to the John Nemechek Trust Fund, Community Bank of Homestead, 28801 S.W. 157th Ave., Homestead, Fla. 33033. ILLUSTRATION: Truck series driver John Nemechek, 27, died five days

after crashing at Homestead, Fla.

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