April 21. 1998 Simmons Recovery Could Take Two Months Chris Simmons (Alco Capital Group/Nassi Group Lola) is resting at his home in East Granby, Connecticut, this week following an accident in unofficial testing at Nazareth Speedway last Saturday afternoon. Simmons, 24, suffered a neck injury when he hit the Turn 4 wall late in the day and will miss this weekend's 100-lap race at Nazareth. He is scheduled for further medical evaluation this week to determine the full extent of his injuries. The veteran driver and his Mattco Raceworks rookie teammate Tony Renna (Alco Capital Group/Nassi Group Lola) were among the fastest drivers at Nazareth during the test session. Simmons was on track in the final 30 minutes of the two-day session when he lost control in Turn 4 and spun into the wall. He was admitted to Easton early Saturday where X-rays for possible fractured neck vertebrae came back negative. He was released on Monday and stopped by the Mattco race shop in Englewood Cliffs, N.J. to visit with the team before driving to Connecticut with his parents. "We were very happy and somewhat surprised to see Chris," said team owner Matt Cohen. "He's tough. I know if most people had taken a hard hit like that they'd be lying around moaning for a long time, but not Chris. In fact, I think he even spent some time with the engineers discussing some ideas on set-up that may help Tony out next weekend. Even though he won't be racing himself, he wants to help the team do the best job it can. We knew Chris was a great person and a real team player when we hired him, and the fact that he's thinking about the team under these circumstances is proof of that. We look forward to having him back in his car as soon as possible." Simmons, in his fourth year of Indy Lights, is the most experienced driver in the series and on the Nazareth oval. Ironically, he had what he described at the time as the "hardest hit" of his career in Friday practice at Nazareth last year only to charge back and win the Sea-Doo/Ski-Doo pole on Saturday for Team KOOL Green. He led the race early and finished second to Cristiano da Matta. Simmons finished fourth at Nazareth in 1996 in his first year with Green and also won a Formula Ford 2000 race at Nazareth in 1992. Mattco plans to run both of its entered race cars at Nazareth but has yet to announce a replacement driver for this weekend's race. Simmons, who is wearing a neck brace, has indicated to team members that he may attend the race.