Jay Frye Transcript - Nadeau Condition

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."