Hendrick hoped to have NASCAR’s most popular driver back in the auto next week at the Brickyard. Alex Bowman is replacing Earnhardt at the Loudon track.
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Earnhardt was 13th in points prior to missing Sunday’s race.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. has dropped out of the Sprint Cup race Sunday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway because of symptoms of a concussion. “If there was something major wrong, I think (doctors) would have seen it already”, Hendrick said Sunday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
I think we just want to take it one race at a time. I’ve raced with a lot of these guys for a long time but raced around them.
There are no real expectations for the 23-year-old, meeting Greg Ives for the first time Tuesday night, while getting fitted to be the relief driver for Earnhardt if that were the route the team made a decision to go.
“He’s not a bad person to think about to put in the vehicle”, Hendrick general manager Doug Duchardt said Friday.
I think putting any speculation past that is assuming that Dale is not going to be ready for that amount of time. “I’m looking forward to treatment with the goal of getting back in the race vehicle when the doctors say I’m ready”. But it’s definitely not the circumstances that I want to get an opportunity like this.
Hendrick Motorsports announced Thursday evening that Earnhardt was sitting out this Sunday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway after experiencing the concussion-like symptoms following crashes recently at MI and again at Daytona. Gordon, who is still an equity owner in Hendrick Motorsports, was in France last week when Hendrick called him.
So I asked Wallace, a Charlotte Bobcats forward famous for wild falls, how many concussions he’d suffered.
“I’ve had enough sinus infections, and when you’re taking medication for that, you don’t feel 100 percent”, Hendrick said. “I said, ‘Well bring your drivers uniform just in case'”. Gordon won four championships driving for Hendrick Motorsports. “He said, ‘I’ll be in Indy”.
Gordon was the obvious choice to pinch-drive in the No. 88 Chevrolet for Earnhardt, his former Hendrick Motorsports teammate, at one of his favourite tracks.
Earnhardt now sits 13th in the points standings with eight races left in NASCAR’s regular season.
“It’s about making sure that he gets better and supporting him and his decision”, Duchardt said.
Now that Earnhardt has seen doctors and revealed a potential concussion diagnosis, NASCAR will require him to see a neurologist who has spent at least five years treating sports-related head injuries before he can be cleared to return. They took me to my worst racetrack by far and made me look good.
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Duchardt said Earnhardt saw a team of doctors over two days and he learned he could not drive around noon Thursday. He’s reportedly suffering from concussion-like symptoms after a series of wrecks last month at Michigan International Speedway. He is winless this season, meaning he would need a victory to possibly secure a spot in this year’s Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.
