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Sprint Cup
CUP: Breaking News - Vickers Has Blood Clots
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver Brian Vickers is suffering from blood clots...
Brian Vickers will not race this weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway - last weekend Vickers was replaced by his close friend Casey Mears. (Photo: LAT Photographic)
Blood clots in his lung and legs are the reason Brian Vickers will not race this weekend at Dover International Speedway, according to Red Bull Racing Vice President and General Manager Jay Frye. Vickers will be replaced by his close friend Casey Mears.
Casey Mears Fills In
Frye discussed the situation Friday morning at Dover. Following is the transcript from his press conference.
Opening remarks?
This past Wednesday Brian (Vickers) was in Washington D.C. preparing for his Thursday visit with Congressman Doc Hastings at the Walter Reed Medical Center. He was having some discomfort in his chest and with the encouragement of Doctor Jerry Petty Brian went to an emergency room at a D.C. area hospital to get checked out. Numerous tests were conducted including a CT scan. The scan discovered several blood clots in his veins, not his arteries. He was admitted Wednesday evening to the hospital. Currently he’s being given medication to dissolve the clots. He’s been thoroughly tested and given a clean bill of health. The doctors are not sure what caused the clots or how it happened. We’ve been in constant contact with Brian. He’s in great spirits and he’s doing very well. At this point there’s really no time table for his return. One of the things we wanted to talk about too is in our press release yesterday we said this is a minor setback. It is a minor setback in a young man’s life and in his career. Obviously, it’s a major setback for our race team for this weekend. And again with no time table for his return we’re really not sure what the next steps are. But he’s doing great. He wanted to make sure that everybody knew exactly what was going on with him. He’s got great reason for optimism that everything’s going to be fine.
Is there a special doctor who looks into this sport as it relates to what happened to him?
As you know, Brian (Vickers) is a very fit young man. He takes his physical condition very seriously. They don’t know at this point why it happened or what caused it to happen. Last night I Googled and read a lot of things on why it happens and how it happens and there’s a lot of contributing factors to why these things do happen. And some of the contributing factors are things that we do every week and we do it a lot. So is that the reason? I don’t know. I’m not a doctor, but I’m sure it all adds up somewhere in there.
Do you know when Brian will be released from the hospital?
“For privacy reasons we prefer not to mention the hospital. He’s in Washington D.C. We’re optimistic that he could be released today. If not today, then in the next couple days for sure. Obviously, they have him there and he’s in the best place he could be so they can monitor what’s going on with the clots and make sure it’s medicated correctly. There’s really no hurry for him to get out. I think he’s frustrated being in there because he feels fine. But he knows there’s a problem and he knows they’ve got to address the problem. I understand the frustration.
Why can’t Brian race on Sunday?
At this point we’re not even sure when he’s going to get out of the hospital and we had to prepare for the weekend. Again, his health is our number one concern right now. To run a lap, obviously, this is something that is going to affect our chances of making the Chase, that type of thing. But again, he’s a long term player with Red Bull Racing — we’re a long term player in the sport. Our main concern is his health. And if this affects the Chase, again it was nothing that we anticipated happening or wanted to happen but it happened and we’ve got to do what we’ve got to do.
How did the plans for Casey Mears to drive the car come about?
Yesterday when we put out the release of what was going on Brian was still being tested. We really didn’t know. We wanted to let the media know that something was happened and we made a change. We basically got the call around midnight on Wednesday night so it hasn’t even been 48 hours at this point that he has been hospitalized. He went in for tests. Obviously when he went in, he didn’t think he would be hospitalized but he was. So we had to react at that point on what to do. We were very fortunate that Casey Mears was available and agreed to do it. Unfortunately we’ve been through this a couple times in our personal history of doing this type of thing and it came together very quickly at that point. Brian and Casey are great friends, that helps.”
Is Casey Mears the alternative for as long as Brian is out of the car?
Our focus at this point is just to get through the weekend and evaluate where we’re at again on Monday. Casey has agreed to do it as long as we need him to do it or as long as we want him to do it. We’ll know more next week. There’s a question about the All-Star race and are we in or are we out now. We’re really not completely clear on that and we’ll try to get clarification on that today. Certainly we hope we’re in and we plan on participating in it. The team was involved with winning the race too so hopefully we do get in.
Can you clarify where the clots were located?
He was having some discomfort in his chest. It had happened the night before and as we all do he really thought nothing of it and the next day he had them again. So that’s when he called Doctor (Jerry) Petty and asked his opinion on what he should do. Doctor Petty instructed him to just error on the safe side and have it checked out. Obviously these clots dissolve, they move and they split -- I think there was one around his lung. I don’t know if you would say in his lung or not -- again I’m not sure on that. The medication is designed to dissolve these and I’m not sure if when they dissolve them if it breaks them and instead of one there are three smaller ones now or how that works. He’s obviously in a really good place getting the correct medication to get it fixed, dissolved, taken care of. And again, he was pretty smart listening to his body knowing that something was going on to go and get checked out so we’re glad he did that.
Is it doctor’s recommendations – or medication -- that will keep Brian Vickers from being in the car this weekend?
At this point, again, we haven’t spoke to the doctors. We’ve just talked with Brian. And, it became clear yesterday morning that this weekend was not going to be an option. His health and safety are our main concern. We’re not even sure when he is going to be released, for sure. Again, his health is our main concern.
Is there a reason that you haven’t talked to the doctors?
We’ve talked to Brian. And Brian — he wanted us to talk today very openly about what’s going on and we obviously have 100 percent confidence and faith in what he’s telling us the doctors are saying. I’m sure once he gets out we’ll debrief with — lots of times the NASCAR medical liaisons get involved because of terminologies and things — to tell us exactly in our terms and understanding what is exactly going on. So, we’ll be doing that in the next few days.”
What are your goals with Casey Mears in the race car this weekend?
Honestly, we want to compete — we want to compete at a high level. We think Casey Mears can do it. Casey’s a young guy who has still something to prove and we think we should be able to compete at a very high level this weekend, just like we had expectations before this happened.
Casey Mears Fills In
Tom Jensen is the Editor in Chief of SPEEDtv.com, Senior NASCAR Editor at RACER and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. You can follow him online at twitter.com/tomjensen100 and e-mail him at Jensen is the author of “Cheating: The Bad Things Good NASCAR Nextel Cup Racers Do In Pursuit of Speed,” and has appeared on numerous television and radio shows. Jensen is the past President of the National Motorsports Press Association and an NMPA Writer of the Year.
Casey Mears Fills In
Frye discussed the situation Friday morning at Dover. Following is the transcript from his press conference.
Opening remarks?
This past Wednesday Brian (Vickers) was in Washington D.C. preparing for his Thursday visit with Congressman Doc Hastings at the Walter Reed Medical Center. He was having some discomfort in his chest and with the encouragement of Doctor Jerry Petty Brian went to an emergency room at a D.C. area hospital to get checked out. Numerous tests were conducted including a CT scan. The scan discovered several blood clots in his veins, not his arteries. He was admitted Wednesday evening to the hospital. Currently he’s being given medication to dissolve the clots. He’s been thoroughly tested and given a clean bill of health. The doctors are not sure what caused the clots or how it happened. We’ve been in constant contact with Brian. He’s in great spirits and he’s doing very well. At this point there’s really no time table for his return. One of the things we wanted to talk about too is in our press release yesterday we said this is a minor setback. It is a minor setback in a young man’s life and in his career. Obviously, it’s a major setback for our race team for this weekend. And again with no time table for his return we’re really not sure what the next steps are. But he’s doing great. He wanted to make sure that everybody knew exactly what was going on with him. He’s got great reason for optimism that everything’s going to be fine.
Is there a special doctor who looks into this sport as it relates to what happened to him?
As you know, Brian (Vickers) is a very fit young man. He takes his physical condition very seriously. They don’t know at this point why it happened or what caused it to happen. Last night I Googled and read a lot of things on why it happens and how it happens and there’s a lot of contributing factors to why these things do happen. And some of the contributing factors are things that we do every week and we do it a lot. So is that the reason? I don’t know. I’m not a doctor, but I’m sure it all adds up somewhere in there.
Do you know when Brian will be released from the hospital?
“For privacy reasons we prefer not to mention the hospital. He’s in Washington D.C. We’re optimistic that he could be released today. If not today, then in the next couple days for sure. Obviously, they have him there and he’s in the best place he could be so they can monitor what’s going on with the clots and make sure it’s medicated correctly. There’s really no hurry for him to get out. I think he’s frustrated being in there because he feels fine. But he knows there’s a problem and he knows they’ve got to address the problem. I understand the frustration.
Why can’t Brian race on Sunday?
At this point we’re not even sure when he’s going to get out of the hospital and we had to prepare for the weekend. Again, his health is our number one concern right now. To run a lap, obviously, this is something that is going to affect our chances of making the Chase, that type of thing. But again, he’s a long term player with Red Bull Racing — we’re a long term player in the sport. Our main concern is his health. And if this affects the Chase, again it was nothing that we anticipated happening or wanted to happen but it happened and we’ve got to do what we’ve got to do.
How did the plans for Casey Mears to drive the car come about?
Yesterday when we put out the release of what was going on Brian was still being tested. We really didn’t know. We wanted to let the media know that something was happened and we made a change. We basically got the call around midnight on Wednesday night so it hasn’t even been 48 hours at this point that he has been hospitalized. He went in for tests. Obviously when he went in, he didn’t think he would be hospitalized but he was. So we had to react at that point on what to do. We were very fortunate that Casey Mears was available and agreed to do it. Unfortunately we’ve been through this a couple times in our personal history of doing this type of thing and it came together very quickly at that point. Brian and Casey are great friends, that helps.”
Is Casey Mears the alternative for as long as Brian is out of the car?
Our focus at this point is just to get through the weekend and evaluate where we’re at again on Monday. Casey has agreed to do it as long as we need him to do it or as long as we want him to do it. We’ll know more next week. There’s a question about the All-Star race and are we in or are we out now. We’re really not completely clear on that and we’ll try to get clarification on that today. Certainly we hope we’re in and we plan on participating in it. The team was involved with winning the race too so hopefully we do get in.
Can you clarify where the clots were located?
He was having some discomfort in his chest. It had happened the night before and as we all do he really thought nothing of it and the next day he had them again. So that’s when he called Doctor (Jerry) Petty and asked his opinion on what he should do. Doctor Petty instructed him to just error on the safe side and have it checked out. Obviously these clots dissolve, they move and they split -- I think there was one around his lung. I don’t know if you would say in his lung or not -- again I’m not sure on that. The medication is designed to dissolve these and I’m not sure if when they dissolve them if it breaks them and instead of one there are three smaller ones now or how that works. He’s obviously in a really good place getting the correct medication to get it fixed, dissolved, taken care of. And again, he was pretty smart listening to his body knowing that something was going on to go and get checked out so we’re glad he did that.
Is it doctor’s recommendations – or medication -- that will keep Brian Vickers from being in the car this weekend?
At this point, again, we haven’t spoke to the doctors. We’ve just talked with Brian. And, it became clear yesterday morning that this weekend was not going to be an option. His health and safety are our main concern. We’re not even sure when he is going to be released, for sure. Again, his health is our main concern.
Is there a reason that you haven’t talked to the doctors?
We’ve talked to Brian. And Brian — he wanted us to talk today very openly about what’s going on and we obviously have 100 percent confidence and faith in what he’s telling us the doctors are saying. I’m sure once he gets out we’ll debrief with — lots of times the NASCAR medical liaisons get involved because of terminologies and things — to tell us exactly in our terms and understanding what is exactly going on. So, we’ll be doing that in the next few days.”
What are your goals with Casey Mears in the race car this weekend?
Honestly, we want to compete — we want to compete at a high level. We think Casey Mears can do it. Casey’s a young guy who has still something to prove and we think we should be able to compete at a very high level this weekend, just like we had expectations before this happened.
Casey Mears Fills In
Tom Jensen is the Editor in Chief of SPEEDtv.com, Senior NASCAR Editor at RACER and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. You can follow him online at twitter.com/tomjensen100 and e-mail him at Jensen is the author of “Cheating: The Bad Things Good NASCAR Nextel Cup Racers Do In Pursuit of Speed,” and has appeared on numerous television and radio shows. Jensen is the past President of the National Motorsports Press Association and an NMPA Writer of the Year.
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