The following is a transcript of
Jay Frye's interview in Richmond Saturday afternoon.
Transcript courtesy of General Motors Racing.
JAY FRYE, GENERAL MANAGER, MB2/MBV
MOTORSPORTS:
COMMENTS REGARDING JERRY NADEAU'S ACCIDENT DURING HAPPY
HOUR ON FRIDAY AT RICHMOND
"Jerry and Jada's family are all with him. Jada's mom and the baby are
still in Spartanburg. They're coming up tomorrow.
"NASCAR has been phenomenal. The sport has been phenomenal -
like normal - when there has been a problem. We've had calls
for airplanes, food, rooms - whatever you need, which is a
great feeling to have that kind of support, which we all
know about.
"Jerry's vital signs are very good. He remains in critical
condition with head, lung and rib injuries. His evaluation
is ongoing, which is standard operating procedure for the
hospital. The hospital has been phenomenal - everything
they've done. He's in great, great care.
"I saw him twice yesterday. I saw him when they got him
there and I saw him last night - late - and then, this
morning I saw him. He looks great. He looks phenomenal.
"I'm not a doctor. Right now they're doing a lot of tests, a
lot of evaluations today - so, we really don't know much
more than that about his condition, except what we've been
able to announce."
THERE ARE RUMORS ABOUT HIM BEING IN AN INDUCED COMA...
"With all the testing they're doing, they have him sedated.
They don't want him moving around, so that's it. He's
sedated."
HOW DID HE LOOK TO YOU?
"He looked great. Once I went in to see him and left, it
made a world of difference to me. You go in not knowing what
to
expect. Then you see - 'There's your guy. Everything is OK.
He's going to be fine.' Again, I'm not a doctor. We don't
know that. He's in critical condition.
DO YOU KNOW HOW LONG HE'LL BE IN RICHMOND?
"No. I think a lot of that will be told tonight or in the
morning. I think part of it is that they are doing some
tests over, confirming things. They were doing more tests
today."
HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE WHAT HAPPENED?
"All we saw - as soon as it happened we went to the infield
care center. I haven't seen a replay. We were standing on
top of the truck. It appeared that the car started to come
around. When a car comes around, the driver naturally mats
the gas to keep it off the wall. It looked like that helped
accelerate it going backwards. Instead of a four-wheel
backwards slide, there was a two-wheel brake slide with the
rear wheels being lit up, which they didn't grip. Again,
that is my speculation. I have no idea."
DO YOU KNOW IF THERE WAS ANY TYPE OF MECHANICAL PROBLEM
WITH THE CAR?
"No. Every indication we have is that there was nothing
mechanical that happened.
"We were having a great practice. We were going very fast.
It was just one of those things that happened. It was an
accident."
HOW HARD IS IT FOR THE TEAM TO JUST PICK UP AND GET BACK
TO WORK?
"Sometimes, as you know, when you go through a difficult
time, being busy is better. When everything happened, (crew
chief) Ryan Pemberton went over to the hospital with me.
When everything was going on, I kept getting with him and
saying, 'OK, here's the plan - we have plan A, B, C and D.
I'm going to go do this. While I'm doing that, you go do
this. Then, call me - keep communications open on what
you've done.'
ON PICKING JASON KELLER TO SUBSTITUTE TONIGHT
"Obviously with Jerry, you can cut three-quarters of the
field down because of his size. It's like, 'Who will fit,'
is the first thing as a backup driver. Jason is a smaller
guy. We're very excited to have somebody with his ability
tonight. We think we're going to have a good night. That is
part of what we do and it's part of what Jerry Nadeau would
want us to be doing tonight. We want to have a good night.
We're planning on having a good night."
WAS THERE A POINT LAST NIGHT WHERE THINGS STARTED LOOKING
BETTER?
"We were very encouraged because when we got to the hospital
we didn't know. The infield care center was great. The ISC
folks were awesome, providing us information, helping us.
But, nobody knew because he got there and he was gone (in
with the doctors at the hospital). Once we got to the
hospital, they were doing there tests, they were working on
him. Nobody was coming in all the time; his wife wasn't
there, yet, so there was probably a three-hour period where
we weren't sure what was going on. Obviously, when that is
happening - what do you assume? The worst. Well, then a
doctor came in with a smile and it was like, 'OK, here's the
deal.' It made us all feel a lot better. Obviously, he is
hurt. But, it didn't seem like what we thought it could have
been."
ON THE EFFORT TO GET JADA NADEAU HERE LAST NIGHT
"We sent a plane originally just because of what happened.
At the infield care center there are all kinds of things
going on. The crew chief...'Well, you've got to go get this,
this and this done...' Then, here comes spouses or family or
whatever, so how does that work? Well, that was one thing --
Johnny Benson came over and his plane - he had it ready to
go already for Jerry. Michelle Green was gracious enough to
get on the plane to go meet with her. Well, they had to land
in Raleigh because the weather was so bad. Once that
happened we got in touch with NASCAR. NASCAR's plane was
able to go up and over, so they went down and picked her up
in Spartanburg and got her back here about 11 p.m."
HAVE ANY OTHER DRIVERS SAID ANYTHING TO EXPRESS THEIR
CONCERN OR COME TO THE HOSPITAL?
"Bunches. Rick Hendrick, who is a great, great friend of our
team - 'whatever we needed.' NASCAR was 'whatever we
needed.' Kyle Petty came over, Kenny Schrader has called,
John Andretti has called. We have a whole list. I'm missing
people here I'm sure. Mike Helton has called numerous times,
George Pyne, Jim Hunter - it got to the point last night at
some times where there was so much going on that you felt
bad not being able to talk to people.
"The hospital was wonderful. They had us a place - like a
big conference room - and we're still in it. It's kind of
our room."
HOW IS JADA DOING?
"Jada is going great. Part of the deal when she got there,
too - assuming, not sure, whatever. When she went to see him
- from what I saw - her seeing him and coming out, she was
encouraged. Again, you don't know what to expect. All you've
got - we're not doctors - we just saw him. He looks good."
HOW LONG WERE YOU AT THE HOSPITAL WITH HIM?
"We got there about 5:30 p.m. - when they got him there.
Then, we left at 3 a.m. and then went back this morning at 9
(a.m.) and just left about 3:30 (p.m.)."
WHAT IS THE PLAN AFTER TONIGHT'S RACE?
"We'll evaluate everything else tonight, tomorrow, Monday -
the next step. We plan on going to all the races. We've got
to continue and that's the way he would want it to be, too."
ON THE TRIP JERRY WAS INVOLVED IN THIS WEEK TO WALTER
REED HOSPITAL
"The Army has been great. There has been a three-star
general and a four-star general come over to visit him. It's
ironic that he was at Walter Reed Wednesday and saw...the
spirit of these young solders who have been injured. There
was no feeling sorry for yourself. There was none of that.
They're ready to go back. Maybe that is a blessing in
disguise that he saw that. Now, he's going to have some of
the same struggles that maybe some of them are having. We
saw their attitude and he is the same type kid. He's feisty.
He's a winner. He's hard-headed and he'll be back. He's
going to be great."
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