FANTASY NASCAR Racin

a retired race car driver from Danbury, Connecticut. Nadeau's NASCAR career began in 1995 in the Xfinity Series. He made his debut at Hickory Motor Speedway in the #15 Buss Fuses Ford Thunderbird and ran five races that season with a best finish of nineteenth at Myrtle Beach Speedway. He ran a pair of Xfinity races the following season in the #59 Winmiser Chevy, but finished 39th in both races. After returning from racing in Europe in 1997, Nadeau moved to the Cup Series, and signed a five-race contract with Precision Products Racing to replace Morgan Shepherd in the #1 R+L Carriers/Cruisin' America Pontiac Grand Prix. He made all five races, including a ninth-place qualification at New Hampshire International Speedway, but failed to finish higher than thirtieth and was let go at the end of his contract. In 1998, he signed up to drive a full schedule in Winston Cup with Bill Elliott Racing to drive the #13 FirstPlus Financial Ford for a car owned by Dan Marino. He failed to qualify for two of the first seven races, and was let go from the team midway through the season. He was immediately picked up by Melling Racing to drive the #9 Cartoon Network Ford Taurus, and finished the

season thirty-sixth in championship points, and third in the NASCAR Rookie of the Year points standings. Nadeau returned to Melling in 1999 NASCAR Cup Series, earning his first top-ten finish at Talladega Superspeedway. Early in the 1999 season, he announced that he would be leaving Melling at the end of the year, and two weeks after placing fifth at Watkins Glen International, he moved to MB2 Motorsports to replace Ernie Irvan in the #36 M&M's Pontiac. In 2000, he drove the #25 Michael Holigan Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports, and after two fourth-place finishes, won the season-ending NAPA 500. Nadeau started the 2003 season as the driver of the MB2/MBV Motorsports #01 United States Army Pontiac, and quickly had a fourth-place finish at Texas. On May 2, 2003, during a practice session at Richmond International Raceway for the Pontiac Excitement 400, Nadeau spun in turn one and hit the wall driver's side first at high speed. Jerry responded to his crew before falling unconscious, he had

to be cut out of his car. Nadeau suffered complete immobility of the left side of his body, a skull fracture, concussion, and several broken ribs. He was comatose for 20 of the 25 days he was hospitalized in Richmond before beginning a month of rehab in Charlotte. Every doctor he consulted said another head blow might kill him. Naduea was replaced by Joe Nemechek. Nadeau has not raced in NASCAR since. Nadeau worked with the Clay Andrews Racing Busch Series team as a mentor for rookie David Gilliland in 2006; Gilliland went on to win the Meijer 300 and earned a ride with Robert Yates Racing later that season. He later said in a Speed Channel interview in May 2006 that he will "more than likely not race in a Cup car again", but raced in the Old School Racing Champion’s Tour in 2008. For 2011, Nadeau became a mentor to truck series rookie Jeffrey Earnhardt, son of Kerry and grandson of Dale. For his career Nadeau competed in one Trucks series event, eight Nationwide events, and 177 CUP events. He had the lone CUP series win, and had almost 10 million dollars in earnings. Some info from WikiPedia. Here is a YouTube video of Nadeau's near fatal crash. And one of Nadeau's Atlanta win in 2000.

Fantasy NASCAR Racing

GERALD "JERRY" NADEAU - 09/09/1970