Boston University Diagnoses Late NASCAR Hall of Famer Fred Lorenzen With Stage 3 CTE

Fred Lorenzen, the 1960s NASCAR star known as "The Golden Boy," had stage 3 chronic traumatic encephalopathy when he died, according to a post-mortem analysis by the Boston University CTE Center. His children, Chris Lorenzen and Amanda Lorenzen Gardstrom, released the findings today, Oct. 20, through the Concussion & CTE Foundation.

Stage 3 is the second-most severe of four stages. Lorenzen is the first NASCAR driver known to be diagnosed with the disease.

CTE can only be confirmed by examining brain tissue after death. That is why this diagnosis came almost two years after Lorenzen died on Dec. 18, 2024, at age 89.

A pledge made in 2016

Lorenzen lived with dementia for about 20 years. In 2016, the year after he was inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame, he pledged to donate his brain for research. By the 2015 ceremony he was already in a nursing home, unable to walk, and his son delivered the induction speech for him.

His racing record is not in dispute. Lorenzen started 158 Cup races between 1956 and 1972 and won 26, including the 1965 Daytona 500 and the 1963 and 1965 World 600. He was the first driver to win $100,000 in a single season.

A less common form of the disease

Dr. Thor Stein, the Boston University neuropathologist who studied the brain, said Lorenzen had cortical-sparing CTE, the first identified subtype of the disease. "In about 10% of CTE cases, the disease is worse in areas of the brain controlling behavior and movement, leading to behavioral symptoms and Parkinson's-like movement disorders that start earlier in life," Stein said.

That fits what the family describes. Amanda Lorenzen Gardstrom said her father "struggled for many years, long before he was diagnosed with dementia in his 60s." Chris Lorenzen told USA Today Sports it was as if his father "sort of passed in the mid-2000s," calling the experience "35 years of constant heartbreak."

Money, a helpline, and a dispute with NASCAR

The children are donating $1 million to the Concussion & CTE Foundation to fund research. The gift also created the Fred Lorenzen Memorial HelpLine, which is meant to connect drivers and their families with care navigation, education and support groups.

"While he may be the first race car driver diagnosed with CTE, we know from outreach to other drivers that he isn't the only one suffering," Lorenzen Gardstrom said.

The family says it opened a dialogue with NASCAR leadership in January about the diagnosis, and that NASCAR declined to join the initiative. NASCAR has no role in the helpline or the research effort, the family says.

"My dad's dementia care came at a significant financial and emotional cost to our family," Chris Lorenzen said. "We had hoped NASCAR would join us in this effort, and while we're disappointed that hasn't happened, we remain hopeful there will be opportunities to work together to support the drivers who helped build the sport."

The family acknowledges that NASCAR has made strides in driver safety. Its stated hope is that the commitment extends to retired drivers and to research on the long-term effects of repetitive head impacts.

What one case does and does not show

This is a single diagnosis. Research on CTE in motorsports is far less developed than the work on former football players, and one brain cannot say how common the disease is among drivers.

Lorenzen drove in an era of rigid steel cockpits and no head restraints. Safety equipment has improved enormously since then. Concussions remain a concern in the sport, though. Kurt Busch ended his full-time career after a severe concussion in a 2022 qualifying crash at Pocono Raceway. Dale Earnhardt Jr., whose Cup career was cut short by concussions, has said he intends to donate his brain after his death.

The Lorenzen result also lands amid another case. Hall of Famer Darrell Waltrip, 79, stepped away from public life after being diagnosed with frontotemporal degeneration. His family said the diagnosis was complicated by possible CTE, "likely from injuries incurred during his racing career." CTE cannot be confirmed in a living person, so the Waltrip family's statement describes a possibility, not a diagnosis.

The Lorenzen family says it will keep building the helpline and funding research with or without NASCAR. The open question is whether the sanctioning body takes up their invitation to work together on support for retired drivers.