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Dr. Jerry Punch Saved Rusty Wallace's Life · Kenny Wallace Media

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  Hello everyone and welcome back to Kenny Conversation, brought
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  to you by Jags, the leader in high performance aftermarket car
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  parts. Remember to go to jags.com for
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  everything you need to fix your vehicle up.
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  So you're probably wondering why the legend Doctor Jerry Punch is
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  here right now. We're in the media room at the
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  Bristol Motor Speedway, and this is part three of the Rusty
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  Wallace stories. And we don't need Rusty because
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  Rusty was knocked out where this story goes.
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  So, Doc, do we remember what year this was?
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  It was actually, it was August of 1988.
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  I was here. I don't know why I was here.
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  I think it was when I was just getting going, but so Rusty is
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  in the Kodiak car. Right.
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  All right. Barry Dodson's the crew chief,
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  and we have a waging tire war. We have Hoosier and Goodyear.
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  Right. You take it from there.
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  Well, it's Friday evening and it's a it's a late practice
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  session because there's going to be a Bush Series race that
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  night, a couple hours. And so not many people wanted to
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  go out, you know, late in the heat in the afternoon.
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  So there were two cars on the racetrack, Rusty and Dale
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  Earnhardt Senior. What a shock.
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  That's a show. So, so, so third lap by Rusty's
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  coming off Turn 4 and I hear this and I'm standing on pit Rd.
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  on the front straightaway getting ready to interview Rick
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  Mass, one of the Bush series drivers.
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  And we were going to wait till these guys run a couple laps and
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  it gets quiet. We can do the interview for the
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  race that night on television. I hear a crunch.
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  I look up and I see Rusty's car has come off the wall and turned
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  4, and it's spiraling upward, his Pontiac Grand Prix like a
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  punt, like a football. And then it hits on the nose and
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  on its side and begins to barrel roll down the front
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  straightaway. Now you think we're at Bristol,
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  so how fast could it be going? But it rolled, and there's video
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  of it showing it rolling. It comes to rest with the front
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  of the car up on the pit wall and the roof caved in about 20
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  feet from where I'm standing. So I I literally run over there.
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  I'm in my ESPN orange golf shirt and I get to the window and the
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  roof is pushed down. The window net is pushed down so
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  I can't get the window net loose and rusty.
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  He's got an open face, helmet on and he slumped over in the seat
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  and there's blood trickling out of both sides.
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  I didn't know. I didn't.
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  I didn't know this part. Yeah.
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  And he's and I looked down and I'm an ER doc, a trauma doc.
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  So I, I, I look down and I don't see his uniform moving at all.
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  So he's not breathing. So I don't know why he's in
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  respiratory arrest. At the time I didn't know what
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  really happened, so I'm just trying to get to him.
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  I can't get the window net. The roof is down, the bar is
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  crunched. I can get my fingers through the
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  net just enough to get to his jaw.
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  His chin is forward and I'm trying not to turn his and pull
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  his neck, but I want to pull his jaw forward to try to get an
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  airway. I just get the edge of his jaw
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  and pull it forward and I see his uniform move about an inch,
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  so I know I've gotten an airway there.
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  Earnhardt, meanwhile, has slid his car.
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  It'll stop on the track, runs out of his car, runs over and
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  sees all the smoke blowing out of Rusty's car.
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  He's yelling, what do we do? What do we do?
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  I said, Dale, we got to get this roof off.
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  I got to get to him. He doesn't.
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  He's not breathing. So Dale's screaming.
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  Dick Beatty, who's the NASCAR series director, comes over and
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  I'm. And I'm telling Nick I got to
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  get to him. I got you.
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  So their their equipment truck pulls up and they're trying to
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  saw the part of a bar so I can get into the window net and Dick
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  takes his Winston Cup hat off and holds it in front of my face
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  while I'm holding Rusty's jaw because I can't move and else he
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  doesn't have an. Airway and we don't want the
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  grinding to get in your face. All the grinding and the sparks,
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  everything to burn me. So I'm holding that they get it
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  open. We get into Rusty, we get an
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  airway, we put a backboard on him, we get the top of the car
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  off, we lift him up, put him in an ambulance.
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  He's still, he's coming too. He's a little groggy but get in
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  the ambulance and he's starting to breathe on his own.
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  There was no doctor here that day so I'm in there in my ESPN
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  shirt and and the paramedics said, what do we do, Doc?
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  I said, he said let's why don't why don't you intubate?
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  He means put a tube in in one bag.
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  I said no, he's waking up. He's breathing on his own.
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  Let's put Ivs in both arms and let's.
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  And so I told Rusty take a deep breath and I did a brief just
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  just a cursory exam while he's in the animal just parked on the
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  front straightaway. It's a start finish line and so
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  he's he's waking up a little bit and and breathing on his own.
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  I realize he's stable at this point in time.
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  We don't know what injury he's got other injuries he may have
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  until we gave him to the hospital and do a scan and do a
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  couple X-rays of his neck. So I come out of the ambulance.
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  They take off and go to the hospital.
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  About two hours and a half later I I get, I'm on my headset.
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  We're about 30 minutes from starting the Bush race.
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  I'm on my headset walking up Pit Rd. and I get a note, a call
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  from the TV truck that said Rusty had called.
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  The hospital had called for Rusty to the racetrack.
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  They passed him through to the TV truck to tell me thank you
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  for what I had done and that he's going to be admitted
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  overnight, but he's going to be OK And so, you know, obviously,
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  that's great news. And so so word spread, spread
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  very quickly in a garage area that Rusty was being invited but
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  was going to be OK. So we're like 5 minutes before
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  the race starts the Bush race and Dale Earnhardt comes walking
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  down Pit Rd. As I'm walking up by the car is
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  gritted, he goes walking down Pit Rd. walks right up to me and
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  puts his finger in my chest and says, hey, do you hear about
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  Rusty? He's going to be all right.
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  I said, yeah, that's good news. And that's great news.
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  And then Dale stopped and looked at me and said, you know, you
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  probably say Rusty's Live Today. And then he just paused up there
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  and he says, why would you do that?
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  Why would anybody do that? Oh my God.
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  And so, and then he started started to laugh, smile and
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  stroking that big mustache. Because Rusty and Dale, as much
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  as they were competitors on the racetrack, they were friends and
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  buddies off the track. And once we knew Rusty was Okay,
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  you know, Dale, a typical Dale Earnhardt, he wanted, hey, why
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  would you do that? Why would anybody do that?
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  Because they were competing for a championship.
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  And the rest of the story is, Rusty gets discharged the next
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  day. And we found out that his his
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  respiratory arrest was not from a traumatic head injury.
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  It was from that Knucklehead inhaled a ham sandwich right
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  before he got in the car. With Manny's.
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  And every rusty does everything quickly.
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  So he inhaled a ham sandwich. Big bites, didn't chew it up.
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  And as he was tumbling, part of that lump of that sandwich
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  blocked his airway. And that's why he wasn't
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  breathing. So the trauma wasn't his airway
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  is not breathing, wasn't related to head trauma, it was related
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  to an obstruction, which meant he could be discharged the next
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  day. He came back and ran the full
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  Cup race on Saturday night and finished 9th.
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  Yeah. So first of all, incredible for
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  me to see Doctor Jerry Punch here.
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  I came around the corner. I'm like, oh, my gosh, very
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  seldom do I come down at year 2024 and see my people.
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  I consider you my people. You're a legend and everybody
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  knows that. And we had a great time.
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  And still here you are. All right, So let's talk about
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  some of the things that I've learned.
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  I'm going to say them and then you comment on them.
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  So we all know that my Big Brother Rusty is.
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  I mean, it's where I get my hyperactivity.
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  I'm just times 10. Rusty's super hyper.
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  I'm more hyper. But I learned from watching, you
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  know, the people of age or or just learn from anybody.
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  Ever since I've been around my brother, he eats so fast and
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  we're hardly done with our food. And Rusty will say, OK, get up,
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  let's go. And I'm like, we're only halfway
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  through our our food. So because of that moment, I
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  decided to make sure that if I eat before race, I eat way
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  before. In your opinion, you're a doctor
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  us race car drivers and want all the race car drivers to listen
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  to this. We want to be ready to go for a
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  long race and when should we eat our last morsel of food before
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  we get into a race? Well, I'm going to say it no
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  sooner, no later than an hour before.
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  An hour. Give yourself because what
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  happens is you know when you eat, you know the blood flow you
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  know is is goes to the stomach that digests what you've just
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  eaten. And you need all the blood flow
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  to all the vital parts, your kidneys, your brain, everything
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  during the race and your muscles so you don't need to have any
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  distractions. And I would recommend you just
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  go with a protein or a pasta the night before and something
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  light, you know, I don't think you should.
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  The hydration's OK Liquids, clear.
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  Liquids, electrolytes, those things, 30 to 40 minutes before
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  getting in the car because that's you're going to, you're
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  going to lose that to perspiration and and your
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  respiration. You're going to lose moisture.
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  But not no solid foods, I would say.
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  And nothing, nothing big. Yeah.
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  I mean a light just just enough to give you some calories and
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  some energy like, you know, no, no sooner than one hour before
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  you race. Yeah.
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  So. Most likely Rusty in inhaled
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  that sandwich. I know him.
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  He inhaled the sandwich, and when the sandwich was right
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  here, he probably started getting in the car.
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  Yeah, yeah. And that sandwich was still
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  barely in the stomach. Well, Rusty told me, and so did
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  Richard. Petty told me that he saw Rusty
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  eating that sandwich, went to him and said, boy, you don't
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  need to be doing that. You know what?
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  And Richard, how how prophetic was that?
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  It was a prophecy. And of course since that time,
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  you know when everybody knew what happened was with Rusty.
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  You see it's trial and error. You learn these things.
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  A few years before we were in, I was in Daytona and I used to
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  spend half a day as a doctor in the Medical Center at Daytona in
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  the Monaco care center and the other half is a broadcaster.
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  And we were in. It was a practice session for
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  the Bush area late Model series in and there was AI won't
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  mention his name. There was a guy who had won that
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  race multiple times who lost control coming in a try Oval.
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  His car goes head on into the wall.
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  Right. The flag stand and yeah and and
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  so he he this guy. You know we we we go down to the
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  care center and this one wasn't LD by the way.
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  Oh it wasn't OK. And so they bring him in and
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  they think that he's gone because he could see a a lot of
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  blood around his neck. Turns out what happened was he
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  had a hound's tooth chain on wearing a chain around his neck
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  and when he when he car spun, that chain spun and even though
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  it was superficial that cut him from here to here, it looked
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  like someone had just taken a knife and cut his throat.
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  So while we're working on him, he ended up being OK.
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  Now when you watch these football games or these baseball
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  games and you see these athletes with the the necklaces that does
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  it make you think about that. It does, because you and and
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  most of those necklaces are sucked if they're pure gold.
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  They're soft enough to break if someone grabs one.
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  But I I with a race car driver back when they had the big
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  hounds tooth that was sharp on edges and this guy spun.
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  I don't know if because remember we didn't have didn't have the
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  compartments where the seats are so the driver could move around
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  and chances are he was moving One Direction to another and
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  this chain cut him. So I remember while we're
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  working on him and we're getting him resuscitated getting him.
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  I called over to the office and had Bill Franks Junior come over
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  because I wanted him to walk in the care center and see this
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  guy's neck. And I said you need to tell
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  drivers no jewelry and no metal rings wear, wear a rubber
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  wetting ring because if you hit something with your and that
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  ring pinches, you're going to lose a finger because you can't
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  get it off. You're going to lose blood
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  supply, you lose a finger and also no, no jewelry.
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  So he he made a comment in in the drivers meeting at that
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  point in time. From that point on, the driver
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  shouldn't be wearing necklaces and jewelry out there on the
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  racetrack because it could be could be dangerous.
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  So I we could go on and on because you've you've seen it
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  all, Doc. Let's end like this, something
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  that we haven't talked about. I wish Barry Dotson was alive,
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  but you can tell this story. So why did Rusty wreck that day?
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  So we know about that, that tire battle I talked about and your
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  memories are incredible right now.
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  And we talked about it before we went on air here.
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  So Rusty was on Hoosier tires that day.
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  Why did that tire get cut down and why did it send him into the
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  wall? Well, the speculation by the
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  crew team, by Barry and the team went after rescue left to go and
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  they went and looked at the car. Speculation was at that side
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  wall in those tires. It was a tire war.
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  So the flexible tire with more grip was with the way you know
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  that was faster. But with the G force here, Rusty
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  came up off turn 4 and the sidewall flex and they're saying
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  the sidewall flex and allowed the right front tire to lean
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  against the ball joint. And he just just like it was
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  like a giant can open, just ripped it open And the car, the
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  car just went down right up into the side of the concrete and
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  grandstands and just started tumbling.
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  Well, deep breath, everybody. That one has got me.
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  I got goosebumps and I feel nauseated right now because I
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  was there that day. But listen everybody, we are in
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  podcast form and we always remind you that please like and
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  subscribe here podcast form. That means we're on iTunes and
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  Spotify, listen to Doc Punch tell the story of how he saved
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  Rusty's life all the way to work.
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  And if it's still not enough, you can listen to Doctor Jerry
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  Punch on the way home until then until the next show.
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  Remember, Little Birdie tells me, Danica, Patrick's coming on
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  Kyle Busch, so we got him in the pipeline, Doc, Let's say goodbye
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  to everybody. Hey, thank you.
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  Thanks for watching and listening.