Dr. Stephan Stapczynski, the University of Kentucky's Department of Emergency Chair and the Medical Director of Kentucky Speedway, left, talks with Lorne Priestley about the condition of Priestley's son, actor/race car driver Jason Priestley. (AP photo) | ZOOM |

        Jason Priestley and his fellow drivers had been warned to avoid a slick spot during practice at Kentucky Speedway on Sunday, a race official said Monday, but the actor drove over the problem area at more than 170 mph, causing him to lose control, crash twice and suffer head and spinal injuries.

        Mr. Priestley, 32, a star of the former television show Beverly Hills 90210, is expected to fully recover from a concussion and spinal fracture. He remained in serious but stable condition Monday and was transferred from the University of Kentucky Medical Center to Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis.

        Mr. Priestley also broke his nose and feet during the crash suffered while practicing for the Infiniti Pro Series 100, a race that is part of the developmental circuit for the Indy Racing League.

        “He does not have any injury that shouldn't fully recover,” said Dr. Andrew Bernard, a UK Hospital trauma surgeon.

        A pit technician personally notified Mr. Priestley during a caution pit stop that oil spray from Ryan Hampton's car had been cleaned up with oil-dry — a chemical that helps dry out oil — on the lower half of the second turn, said IRL director of operations John Lewis.

        Mr. Priestley's team, Kelley Racing, was also told about the oil-dry over a radio frequency, he said.

        “Our pit techs each have four cars that they handle, and they tell the drivers when there's something on the track,” Mr. Lewis said. “And his team was certainly notified. I don't monitor their frequency to know if they relayed the message to him, but I do know that they got the message from the league.”

        Kelley Racing general manager Jim Freudenberg declined to speak but issued a statement Monday night defending his team and driver.

        “The track conditions were not the best,” Mr. Freudenberg said. “It was very slippery all the way around and despite the best efforts of the safety crew to clean up oil from a competitor's fluid leak, the IRL practice that immediately followed Jason's session had everyone complaining about the slick surface.”

        Dr. Stephan Stapczynski, who cared for Mr. Priestley at UK, said he had stabilized to the point where a safe transfer could be made to the Methodist Hospital.

        “His pulse and blood pressure are normal,” Dr. Stapczynski said. “He continues to breathe on his own, and he responds to commands and voluntarily moves all his extremities.”

        Mr. Priestley also suffered face and neck cuts when he lost control after driving through the oil-dry. His car veered right and slammed nose-first into the outer concrete wall, ripping off the nose cone, and ricocheted back toward the infield wall. Mr. Priestley's car hit the infield wall head-on, the more serious of the two collisions because he did not have a nose cone to absorb the impact.

        “I don't know how he got that low on the track that he would have hit the oil-dry,” said Hamilton driver Tony Turco, who was one turn behind Mr. Priestley on the track. “I'm sure that all the drivers were instructed about the oil-dry in turn 2. A race official put his head in my cockpit while we were on pit row and made it very clear to me to be very careful in turn 2 because there was oil-dry on the lower half of the track.”

        Mr. Turco said Mr. Priestley might have avoided the first collision if he had steered to the left instead of overcorrecting to the right.

        “The thing to do in a real loose situation like he was in is to turn left and make the car spin down the track,” Mr. Turco said. “I'm not saying he did anything wrong whatsoever. A loose car is a nightmare. Usually when it gets to that point, it's too late.”

        IRL and Kentucky Speedway medical teams had Mr. Priestley on a helicopter and at UK within 35 minutes of the crash.

        “To us, this is part of racing,” said Kentucky Speedway owner Jerry Carroll. “But it's how you respond to these accidents that makes the difference. Today, Jason Priestley is alive.”

        Because of the accident, Mr. Carroll said, the speedway will consider installing Steel and Foam Energy Reduction (SAFER) walls — so-called soft walls — that pad the concrete barriers now in place. The Indianapolis Motor Speedway is the only track with those walls, developed by University of Nebraska researchers.

        Kentucky Speedway's season is over for 2002, but Mr. Carroll said he needs approval from IRL or NASCAR, the other major sanctioning body in auto racing, before installing soft walls. Mr. Lewis said only Indianapolis has been tested for soft walls, and he doesn't know if they would work at Kentucky Speedway.

        “If we can prove that we can repeat the results of Indianapolis, then certainly that's something we'd like to do,” Mr. Lewis said. “We have some more tests that we're going to be running in the next 30 days.”

        Dr. John Rhode, a geotechnical engineer at Nebraska who helped develop the walls, said more testing is needed before they can be installed at other tracks. But he said the ultimate goal of the research, along with the IRL's commitment to safety, is to have the walls at every track.

        The walls are not installed along the inside walls at Indianapolis, which is where Mr. Priestley sustained his most serious injuries. It is unclear whether a soft outside wall would have slowed Mr. Priestley's car after the first collision and eased the damage caused by the second crash, Dr. Rhode said.

        The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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