RICHMOND. Va. – Jerry Nadeau was listed in critical condition Friday night at a Richmond hospital after crashing his car during practice for Saturday night’s Pontiac 400 at Richmond International Raceway.

Nadeau, a 32-year-old native of Danbury, Ct., was flown by helicopter to the Medical College of Virginia hospital after being cut from his No. 01 Pontiac, which had slammed into the outside wall in Turn 2 of the .75-mile track.

“The doctor has told us there is the potential for some serious injuries,” NASCAR vice president for communications Jim Hunter said shortly after Nadeau’s helicopter took off from the track.

Just after 9 p.m. EDT, Hunter returned to the track’s media center to say the driver was in critical condition and that was all he could say until Nadeau’s wife, Jada, arrived at the hospital.

Jada Nadeau had been attending her grandfather’s funeral in Spartanburg, S.C., on Friday and was not at the track when the wreck happened just after 5 p.m. Severe weather in the Carolinas were hampering her attempts to reach Richmond.

Nadeau had qualified 12th for Saturday night’s race in time trials that ended just after 4 p.m., in which Terry Labonte won the pole. Nadeau’s crash came about 20 minutes into the first of two practice sessions held for the 43 cars that had made the field.

A television replay showed that Nadeau’s car lost traction as it started into Turn 1 near the inside of the track. It slid up the 14-degree banking spewing white smoke from its tires, turning 180 degrees before hitting the outside wall on the driver’s side with the nose of the car pointing back toward Turn 1.

Emergency workers arrived quickly at the scene of the wreck and began using tools to cut away the roof of the car. The roof was folded back and workers took Nadeau from the car, put a neck brace on him and put him on a backboard.

Nadeau has made 177 career Winston Cup starts. He won the final race of the 2000 season at Atlanta Motor Speedway for his only career victory. In 10 races this year, his best finish has been fourth at Texas Motor Speedway.

Jason Keller, a regular in the NASCAR Busch Series, practiced the No. 01 back-up car in the final practice Friday afternoon.

Labonte’s pole-winning speed of 126.511 mph is evidence of how fast Winston Cup cars travel at Richmond despite the fact that it is one of the circuit’s shorter tracks.

Sterling Marlin was leading the Winston Cup points standings when he crashed during a race at the track last September. After Marlin crashed in a subsequent race at Kansas Speedway, he was diagnosed with a cracked cervical vertebrae that caused him to miss the season’s final seven races. Marlin has said he thinks his injury stemmed from the crash here.

Johnny Benson, Derrike Cope and Bobby Hamilton also missed races following crashes in Busch and Truck series events at the track in 2002.

Richmond has been mentioned as one of the tracks where an energy-absorbing barrier called the SAFER system could be employed once NASCAR is satisfied with results of testing being done on by researchers from the University of Nebraska. The barrier has been in place since last year in the turns at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Nadeau’s crash shifted Friday’s focus away from Labonte, who won his first pole since April 2000 at Texas with his qualifying lap.

“After I qualified I thought, “Well, that could be a top 10,”‘ Labonte said. “A few more cars went and I thought, “That could be a top five.’ Then it got down to a couple of guys left and I got nervous. I was going to be mad if either of them beat us.”

Labonte’s best qualifying effort this year had been 12th at Texas, and he’s started 20th or worse in seven of 10 races. His performance Friday was part of an outstanding effort from all of Hendrick Motorsports, for which Saturday night’s green flag marks the 600th race in which its teams have participated.

Joe Nemechek, in another Hendrick Chevrolet, was second fastest at 126.511 mph, with teammates Jeff Gordon sixth and Jimmie Johnson 10th.

Dale Earnhardt Jr., second in the points after 10 races this year, was third fastest Friday at 126.316 mph, with Bobby Labonte, in a Chevrolet, and Ryan Newman, in a Dodge, rounding out the top five.

Gordon was certainly not distraught over his qualifying lap at 126.062 mph, putting him on the outside of Row 3 for Saturday night’s 400-lap race. In addition to being happy for his teammate, Gordon’s own Richmond record contains a noteworthy statistical oddity – while Gordon has won a pair of races here, in the four times the No. 24 Chevy has started on the pole here Gordon’s best finish is 31st.

Rusty Wallace, who will be making his 600th consecutive Winston Cup start Saturday night, qualified 17th – one spot ahead of Winston Cup points leader Matt Kenseth.

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(c) 2003, The Charlotte Observer (Charlotte, N.C.).

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AP-NY-05-02-03 2131EDT