DALE EARNHARDT JR.’s bride-to-be is begging the NASCAR champ to retire after he admitted that he kept a recent brain injury secret!
The 38-year-old racer announced to reporters that he hadn’t told anyone about a concussion he’d suffered Aug. 29 in a test crash in Kansas.
Just a few weeks later – on Oct. 7 – Dale sustained a serious concussion in a 25-car crash on the last lap of a race at Talladega Superspeedway. That injury forced him to sit out two subsequent races.
Although Dale insisted that he had fully recovered from the first concussion by the Talladega event, his girlfriend of two years, Amy Reimann, was dumbstruck by the revelation.
“She wants him to retire before it’s too late,” said an insider. “She doesn’t think he has anything else to prove on the track.”
Dale revealed that the concussion from the Kansas crash affected the frontal lobe of his brain and caused headaches, while the Talladega accident resulted in a concussion to the base of his brain. He admitted that the back-to-back blows to his head had left him “mentally a mess.”
“Amy is scared to death for Dale,” said another source. “She’s fearful the next injury will end his career – or worse. She dreams of having children with him.”
Insiders credit Amy’s influence for helping propel Dale to one of his best racing seasons ever. He scored 18 Top 10 finishes – his most since 2004 – and he broke a 143-race winless drought.
“These head injuries may have finally knocked some sense into him,” added the source. “Maybe he’ll follow Amy’s advice and try to raise some kids instead of trying to raise his standings in NASCAR.”