Are there other drivers who have been hit hard but are driving around New Hampshire Motor Speedway this weekend, when they may be suffering from a concussion that should put them on the sideline with Earnhardt?
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The medical clause in the 2015 driver-NASCAR agreement obtained by ESPN.com, which drivers had to sign in order to race past year, states “I$3 certify that should there be any change in my health status, information or medications that I will inform the Medical Liaison’s Office of such change (s) as soon as practically possible, but in no event longer than five business days of my discovery of such change (s)”. Earnhardt Jr. was evaluated this week in Charlotte, N.C., and today was not cleared the to drive in Sunday’s New Hampshire 301.
Now, the focus will turn to Alex Bowman, getting an opportunity of a lifetime this weekend in New Hampshire.
Jeff Gordon has agreed to briefly come out of retirement to drive Earnhardt’s No. 88 auto in Indianapolis. “I took the ImPACT tests, which measures thought process and the speed of your thought process, and memory and retaining memory, and my results matched my baseline – which made me feel confident that my brain was pretty sharp”.
Hendrick said Earnhardt wants to get back in the vehicle as soon as possible and asserted that his driver is planning to continue in the sport long term. It caved it in enough, we thought we would be fine, but obviously, when I got into [Kurt Busch] a little bit it was already going down.
These days, concussions are the most talked about injury in professional sports.
“Just because you go to the nude beach for a couple of months doesn’t mean you don’t know how to put your underwear back on”, Ryan Newman said. I miss everybody. I really appreciate all the support I’ve got.
“When Dale is ready, that’s his vehicle to get back into”, he said. Earnhardt picked him up to drive for JR Motorsports in the XFINITY Series for nine races. If Dale is unable to return to the track at Indianapolis this week, Jeff Gordon has been called in to sub. “I’m going to take this slow and strictly follow the advice of my doctors and try to learn as much as I can to be smarter and wiser”. Earnhardt said he was proud of Bowman.
Although Earnhardt also had concussion issues in 2012, missing two races, Hendrick said he isn’t anxious about his driver’s long-term future. However, neither Jr. nor anyone from Hendrick Motorsports has released a timetable for his return. He’s led 368 laps at the Magic Mile, accumulating 15 top-10 finishes with a best finish of third over a decade ago in 2004.
Earnhardt is winless this season and 13th in the points standings. Jeff Gordon leaned in for a chat with Fearless Freddie previous year at Chicagoland before the race.
Earnhardts concussion history he missed two races in 2012 spurred his decision to pledge his brain to the Legacy, a group that works with Boston University on research into chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, a degenerative disease that doctors believe is caused by repeated blows to the head. He qualified 20th but made a steady march toward the front of the field. “I told him, ‘Then bring your driver’s uniform just in case'”.
“This is the first time I’ve consistently run in the top 10 in a Cup auto”, added Bowman. “After further evaluation, they felt it was best for me to sit out”.
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Earnhardt will be evaluated early next week, but his status for the Crown Royal 400 at the Brickyard at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway remains unclear. Team general manager Doug Duchardt said he didn’t notice any difference in Earnhardt during their Tuesday competition meeting. We’re just taking it a week at a time. “He said, ‘I’ll be in Indy”.
