NASCAR’s annual spring visit to Richmond International Raceway marks the 10-year anniversary of Jerry Nadeau’s near fatal accident at the track. Nadeau crashed driver’s-side first into the outside wall between Turns 1 and 2 during a May 2, 2003, practice at Richmond.
He was airlifted to Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center in critical condition with a moderate to severe head injury, partially collapsed left lung, fractured shoulder blade and left-side rib-cage injuries. It took 20 days for Nadeau to regain full consciousness and begin to speak again, and four more before he was transferred to Charlotte Institute of Rehabilitation to begin physical, occupational and speech therapy.
Nadeau was in inpatient care until June 6, and in therapy until July 25. When NASCAR returned to Richmond in September that year, Nadeau made an emotional visit to VCU Medical Center to thank the medical staff. He went on to form World Karting Endurance at Charlotte Motor Speedway, and has done some driver coaching, but never raced again in NASCAR.
Jerry Nadeau still draws an imaginary line down the middle of his body to describe the accident that changed his life 10 years ago this week. On one side of the line his body feels normal, on the other side it’s still numb. That’s the result of a brain injury sustained in practice for a NASCAR Cup race at Richmond International Raceway.
His car spun and hit the Turn 1 wall at 135 times the force of gravity. The line is also a kind of metaphor for a life that is a mixture of frustration and joy, courageous acceptance and occasional regret. Jerry Nadeau does not live in the past. He go-karts often with daughter Natalie, 10, born months before the crash.
And he’s a proud father in the stands at her gymnastics meets. His marriage to Natalie’s mom ended the year after the accident, but he remarried last year to Maryana, a Ukrainian he met online. But if Nadeau doesn’t live in his glory days of racing, he remembers them. And though he’s accepted that his physical limitations ended his career at 33, it still frustrates him.
“Things were going so well and to have it taken away, yeah, I have a lot of bad feelings over that,” Nadeau said. “It’s amazing how time flies. The toughest part, Nadeau says, is that a brain injury makes you feel like a different person. He adds that he’d rather have broken every bone in his body at once than have his mind altered. Unless things change, he not sure when or if he’ll be able work again. But he’s not sad.
“I still love racing, everything about it, and would still be doing it if I could,” Nadeau said. “I had a great life in racing and met a lot of good people. But I’m a different person. I’ve moved forward and I’m trying to make the best of everything.” (Newport News Daily Press)
