SPALDING, FROM NEARBY TROY, BACK CHANGING TIRES AT THE GLEN A FEW MONTHS AFTER GBS LEFT HIM TEMPORARILY PARALYZED (12 PHOTOS) (2022-08-22)

By Brian Fees
Southern Tier Sports Report
WATKINS GLEN — Terry Spalding was right back in a familiar spot on Sunday afternoon, changing tires during the Go Bowling at the Glen.

It’s something Spalding has done a million times before, only this time it was different.

In April the Troy graduate came down with Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS), leaving him temporarily paralyzed, and not knowing if he’d be able to get back to changing tires again. Sunday was the first time Spalding had been on a pit crew changing tires since April.

“It is, it’s very nice,” Spalding said of being at the track changing tires on Sunday. “In April I came down with GBS. Before that, up until April I was changing on the 19 car and the 18 truck for (Joe) Gibbs and I came down with GBS in the beginning of April and by the end of the first week of April I was in Neuro-ICU in Charlotte paralyzed from the shoulders down. It was pretty bad. This was my first time back changing since it all happened.”

Things were tough for Spalding when he came down with CBS.

“It was pretty scary,” Spalding said. “And, since I came down with GBS I’m surprised to learn and hear how many other people have had it. The rear changer on the three, his mother came down with it about the same time as I did. And, she got it about as bad as I did and she’s just now walking okay. Of course, when I was in the hospital and rehab and stuff you hear about other people. I didn’t know anything about it until I got it. It was quite scary.”

It has been a long road back for Spalding.

“It’s an auto-immune disease,” Spalding said. “Your body attacks the coating around your nerves and just kills it. So, none of my nerves would fire and function. I was just paralyzed from the shoulders down, and luckily it stopped and turned around. I had to wait for all my nerves to come back, they still aren’t all back. I had to learn to walk again, learn to write again, now my hand writing is different.”

Immediately after leaving the hospital, Spalding was thinking he could get himself back to changing tires, but the doctors were telling him it was going to be a long recovery.

“My wife says, and my mom, the people that really know me, that I thought I could do it (get back) as soon as I got out of the hospital,” Spalding said. “I was a learning how to walk again and I was pretty sure next week I’d be changing tires. But, it’s taken me several months. But, I’d say I’m about 75%. But, ready to go out here and have some fun, ready to knock it out.”

Since he had GBS the Troy graduate has still been at the track, but he hasn’t been changing tires. That changed on Sunday as he got a call to change tires for the No. 26 car of Daniil Kvyat, a former Formula One driver.

“Right now I’m at Gibbs and I’m coaching the truck and XFinity programs, so I’m going to the race track as a coach when XFinity runs and I was planning on doing that, and on the way up here I got a call from one of these guys and they said, ‘hey, can you change tires on Sunday for the 26 car.’ I said sure, I’ll do it.”

It’s only fitting for Spalding to make his tire-changing return near home in Watkins Glen.

“I came up on Friday evening and I got to see some friends,” Spalding said. “There are a lot of people from the Troy area up here. I already said hey to eight or nine people today, it’s nice.

“It definitely does (feel right to make his return at Watkins Glen). “It’s nice to because here at Watkins Glen is backwards stops so the stops won’t be as fast. I just got the call Friday to change tires for this team, so this team is put together most of it within the last week, so I didn’t know who the other tire changer was going to be. So, I thought you know what, maybe I’ll be able to just kind of cruise and not have to push it too much. But, the other tire changer is from Penske and he is awesome. He and I pitted together at the 20 at Gibbs two years ago. So, he’s going to be up on it, going fast, which means I’ve got to be up on it, going fast. He’s an awesome guy and the other guys on the crew are too. I know them, they a good bunch of guys, it’s going to be fun.”

After everything he has gone through this year, Sunday was a special day for Spalding.

“The reason it feels special for me today is just because a few months ago I was laying in bed paralyzed and I wasn’t sure what was going to happen at all and to be here now,” Spalding said. “The doctors told me don’t even think about it for at least a year. I was like, I’m going to be ready in two weeks. I’m going to be ready in two weeks. Well, it’s finally come and I’m here. I’m a little nervous. If I hadn’t gotten GBS I know I could do it. I’d be so psyched for today with the other changer we’ve got and the crew we’ve got, we could actually pass some cars on the pit road. But, I’m not apprehensive, but I’m anxious to see what happens when I go over the wall and I need that focus and reflexes to see if they are there or not.”

Spalding would like to do more tire changing this year, but after this year he thinks that coaching may be something he would be ready to turn his attention to.

“It’s a lot of fun,” Spalding said. “I coached about 10 years ago, I was a head coach at Petty and I had a lot of fun. But, when I coached that year I was like man, I’m not done changing yet, I miss changing. But, now I want to come back and change for the rest of this year probably. I’m going to keep coaching the rest of this year at Gibbs, but I might change tires in Cup for these guys and for some other teams, just so GBS didn’t take me out. I want to come back from it and prove I can do it again. But, the coaching is fulfilling enough now that I might be ready to hang up the gun.

“I have a lot to offer a team I think in coaching. I know almost all the guys out here and can put together pretty good teams and do well.”
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PHOTOS BY BRIAN FEES