Darrell Waltrip diagnosed with frontotemporal degeneration, stepping away from limelight

Darrell Waltrip, the Hall of Fame NASCAR driver and former broadcaster, is stepping away from public life according to a statement released by his family on Wednesday afternoon.

In the statement, the family of the 79-year-old says he has been diagnosed with frontotemporal degeneration (FTD) complicated by possible Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) due to injuries he suffered from a racing career that spanned from 1972 to 2000.

CTE is a brain disease likely caused by repeated head injuries that gets worse over time, according to the Mayo Clinic. Currently, it can only be definitively diagnosed after death during an autopsy of the brain. It is most often found in people who participated in contact sports or served in military combat. A study released last month led by researchers at Boston University and Harvard Medical School found that roughly 1-in-4 former NFL players who died between 2016 and 2021 had CTE.

After his death in 2024, NASCAR Hall of Famer Fred Lorenzen was diagnosed with CTE by researchers at Boston University. In 2016, fellow NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt Jr. publicly pledged to donate his brain to research after his death.

In their statement, Waltrip’s family didn’t say whether or…

Original source: https://www.usatoday.com/sports/