HENDERSONVILLE, Tenn. – Paul McMahan has been on the mend for nearly a month after suffering a concussion during the Knoxville Nationals at Knoxville (Iowa) Raceway in mid-August.
The 50-year-old is getting better, but still not close to being cleared, much less comfortable, to strap back in the No. 5 CJB Motorsports sprint car.
“I’m just not going as fast as I’d like to with how it has gone,” McMahan said. “You can only heal as fast as your body wants to heal. I feel a little better every day.”
McMahan has no timetable for a return. He could be good to go in two weeks or sidelined the rest of the season.
This year he has been the full-time driver of the No. 5 for CJB Motorsports on the All Star Circuit of Champions tour. It was an opportunity that fell in his lap when the team’s initial full-time driver, Brent Marks, left the team late April. McMahan started the year part-time, happy to run roughly 50 races, most of his choice.
Now McMahan is doing everything he can to keep his career from falling into limbo.
“This might be my last year to race,” McMahan said. “This might be my last opportunity. I’m definitely going to get back in a race car, if I’m able to. I’m not going to push it.
“My health is my priority,” McMahan added. “Barry [Jackson] and Chad [Clemons], and everyone at CJB, said they got my car sitting there and waiting for me if and when I come back. I’m determined to be back, to finish the season.
“To finish my year with CJB is what I want to do,” he said. “They gave me an opportunity to race this year and I want to fulfill my commitment to them.”
McMahan visits a concussion specialist near his Hendersonville, Tenn., home every 10 days. So far, the veteran racer is two visits into his recovery of what he calls “by far the worst” concussion of his career.
Similar to a DUI test, McMahan aces the part where he can walk in a straight line at his checkups with his eyes open.
“But if I close my eyes, I get a little wobbly,” McMahan said. “Just things I’m learning I knew nothing about, that I didn’t know.
“I knew there for a while, I got agitated really easily, and just got pissed off at absolutely nothing,” McMahan said, alluding to mood swings. “When I went to the doctor, I was like, ‘Why’s that?’ She said that’s a normal thing, and it normally goes away. Hopefully it goes away soon.”
Bumps and seemingly meaningless blows to the head over the years in the tight cockpit of a sprint car are normal.
This, however, was no normal ordeal from the beginning. At Knoxville, immediately after the lap-one wreck with Carson Macedo during Hard Knox qualifying night, he became groggy and ultra sensitive to light.
Sound emitted off the track’s PA system bothered him. He couldn’t bend down and tie his shoes. It would make him too dizzy.
“Most of the time, I would climb back in a race car and not think anything of it,” McMahan said. “I was thinking of the wellbeing of myself and others that I race with. I figured if I can’t tie my shoes, I shouldn’t be going 100-whatever miles per hour at Knoxville.”
McMahan estimates he’s suffered 10 to 12 concussions during his battle-tested time in sprint car racing.
He works for QuickCar Racing Products in Lebanon, Tenn., as a parts dealer. It’s his only source of income at the moment and a job that’s already set him up for life after racing.
McMahan wants to race through next year, at the very least. His full-time driving days are over, he said. Those desires are now a handpicked, part-time schedule and a potential farewell tour.
“I want to have one last hoorah at some of these joints, but I don’t have control over that,” McMahan said. “I need car owners to allow me to drive their race cars. Whatever happens, happens. I was good with my situation last year.
“I appreciate everything all the owners have done for me over my career,” he added. “Hopefully I have one more guy who will step up and let me do it next year.”