Jerry Nadeau

He then returned home to race in NASCAR's Winston Cup series in 1997 where he initially struggled to qualify for races. By 1999 he had a solid ride with Hendrick Motorsports and was competetive and won the Fall Atlanta Motor Speedway race in 2000. On May 2, 2003 he suffered a severe head injury in a crash at Richmond International Raceway and has not raced since. However, he has not retired from racing and intends to return to the drivers seat once he has fully recovered.

Jerry Nadeau started on the path to professional racing when his father put him in a kart at age four. He went on to win 10 karting championships between 1984-90. Nadeau's introduction to professional racing came in the single-seat, open-wheel cars of the Skip Barber Eastern Formula Ford Series in 1991. Eight victories earned him rookie of the year honors and one of 10 spots in the inaugural Skip Barber Racing Big Scholarship Run-Off. He finished third and went on to claim the championship the next year. During the next four years, Nadeau honed his racing skills in the Barber Pro Series, capturing five victories and the respect of Barber's racing instructors. In 1995, Nadeau decided he was ready to move into the ranks of NASCAR. He relocated to Charlotte, N.C., and competed in five Busch Series events.

After running only two Busch Series events in 1996, Nadeau returned to open-wheel competition in the Formula Opel European Union Series. He placed sixth in the overall standings, despite not attending four of the 17 events. He also led America's two-car contingent to the silver medal at Nations Cup VII at Donington Park in England later that year. Nadeau ran five Winston Cup races for team owner Richard Jackson in 1997. His on-track performance, including two top-4 finishes in ARCA RE/MAX Series races caught the eye of many in the garage area.

After scoring a breakout victory in the 2000 season finale at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Jerry Nadeau had a perplexing season in 2001 in which he totaled his career best statistics, but still seemed to come up short of expectations. Despite the ups and downs, Nadeau finished a career best 17th in the point standings and won a career best $2,507,827 after scoring four top-five and 10 top-10 finishes. He closed the season with a rush, finishing in the top-six in three of the last four races. Nadeau's 2002 season took more twists than a Winston Cup road course, as he went from working for Rick Hendrick to being unemployed, to working for Petty Enterprises to being signed back with MB2 Motorsports to drive a U.S. Army Pontiac in 2003.

Nadeau was close to his second career Winston Cup victory was leading at Sonoma when his transmission broke. A go-kart injury ended his season in October. He was released by Petty Enterprises, but signed with MB2 Motorsports in September. The Danbury, Conn., native had driven for four different teams in his first three seasons in Winston Cup, and the beginning of the 2000 season confirmed those erratic tendencies. In the first 13 races, Nadeau scored eight finishes of 29th or lower, and he was mired in 30th in the standings.

Qualifying, however, has always been the brave pilot's strong points and that continued under the guidance of crew chief Tony Furr. Nadeau qualified for 20 of the 34 races in the top 25, and improved that to 22 of 36 in 2001.