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Matt Tifft to undergo new test to seek cause of seizures

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Parker Kligerman, Nate Ryan and Marty Snider discuss Brad Keselowski's Coca-Cola 600 win and potential new deals for him moving forward, as well as how Hendrick Motorsports can bounce back at Charlotte.

NASCAR driver Matt Tifft revealed Wednesday he will undergo additional testing this week to potentially determine what caused two seizures that have kept him sidelined from racing for the past seven months.

Tifft, who turns 24 on June 26, suffered his first seizure Oct. 26, 2019 at Martinsville Speedway and has not raced since then. Tifft and his team, Front Row Motorsports, announced Nov. 13, 2019, that they were mutually ending their agreement so he could focus on his health.

Tifft revealed earlier this year that he suffered a second seizure on December 12, 2019, while on his honeymoon.

“I know you’ve been asking for a health update from me,” Tifft said Wednesday to followers in a video post on Twitter. “So today I’m actually flying up to Columbus, Ohio, and then riding up to Hinckley (his hometown of Hinckley, Ohio) from there this week. I’m going to University Hospitals (south of Cleveland).”

MORE: Friday 5: Mat Tifft on the road to recovery from December seizure

Tifft will undergo an electroencephalogram – commonly known as an “EEG” – that detects irregularities in electrical activity of the brain.

“What that means is they put a bunch of probes on my head to try and figure out what has been causing these past seizures,” Tifft said in his video tweet.

According to MayoClinic.org, “An EEG can determine changes in brain activity that might be useful in diagnosing brain disorders, especially epilepsy or another seizure disorder.

“An EEG might also be helpful for diagnosing or treating the following disorders: brain tumor, brain damage from head injury, brain dysfunction that can have a variety of causes (encephalopathy), inflammation of the brain (encephalitis), stroke and sleep disorders.”

Tifft, who underwent surgery to remove a brain tumor in mid-2016, appeared upbeat and optimistic in Wednesday’s 41-second video.

“Hopefully, this gives us some answers,” he said. “And based on that, we’ll have some treatment plan to hopefully correct and fix this moving forward so it never happens again.

“Thanks for all your concern and thoughts through all this time and everybody stay safe and we’ll let you know what happens here soon.”

Follow @JerryBonkowski