"It got serious real quick": When Kelley Earnhardt realized Dale Jr.'s concussion meant more than racing

Kelley Earnhardt Miller found it hard to believe when her brother Dale Jr. was asked to sit out a race following a crash back in 2012. It was at that time she realized that he was suffering from something serious.

Crashes are a huge part of NASCAR. Every driver on the field has been involved in wrecks multiple times throughout their careers. With the ever-growing concerns for safety, however, the sport has become much safer. Yet, there have been moments in the past that altered the course of drivers' careers forever.

Dale Earnhardt Jr., one of the most popular people in NASCAR, once found himself in a situation like that. During the final lap of a race at the Talladega Superspeedway, he found himself in the midst of a multi-car wreck. While he was battling for a strong position, he was left stranded shortly after the race. The medical reports stated that he had suffered a concussion.

His sister Kelley Earnhardt Miller first found it hard to believe that Dale Jr. was advised to "sit out" the upcoming race. But then she realized the situation's seriousness.

"It's like, 'Wait a minute, we can't do this! There's way too much involved for him to sit out,'" she said (via USA TODAY Sports in October 2012). "But when they talk to you about the health repercussions of it, and what that means, it got serious real quick. I put all the business stuff aside and just focused on Dale Jr., and it was real easy to handle what they said at that point."

This was the second concussion Dale Jr. had suffered that year. Earlier, he also suffered from a major crash at Kansas, which he believes was one of the reasons he had to end his career.

---

Dale Jr. once discussed his Kansas crash, blaming it for the common occurrences of his concussions

Earlier in 2012 during a testing session at the Kansas Speedway, Dale Earnhardt Jr. suffered from a major impact as his car hit the fence. He described the incident as having an "insane impact."

Dale Jr. detailed the incident as he neared the fence driving at over 190 mph (305 km/h). He revealed that his head hit the headrest, which was extremely stiff, causing the insides of his brain to move towards his skull with a great impact.

"I remember thinking as I was heading toward that fence, 'This is going to be an insane, insane impact,'" Earnhardt recalled in 2018 (via Autoweek). "And I hit the wall at 190 miles an hour and my head is right against that headrest and it’s as stiff as a roll bar, and so my head didn’t go anywhere and everything inside of it went into high-speed movement, and my brain just compacts against the inside of my skull at an incredible force."

He further mentioned that this was one of the incidents that made him cut his career short. He also said that due to that crash, concussions became common for him.

"There’s not any situation that I can think of that would result in a harder impact in racing. And if it doesn’t happen to me, I probably don’t cut my career short. I’m probably still driving race cars today. But that wreck made it easier, I think, for me to get concussions beyond that instance."

Dale Earnhardt Jr. suffered from concussions for a long time throughout his career following crashes like this. He retired from full-time racing at the end of the 2017 Cup Series season. He is estimated to have suffered from 20 - 25 concussions during his career.