“We completely support the decision by the doctors and will be ready to go win races when he is 100 percent”.
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Gordon might not be done, but Junior just might be, at least for the immediate future.
While everyone would like the Dale Earnhardt Jr. concussion talk to focus on his health, there will be a race this weekend.
“Download” on his weekly audio update on Dirty Mo Radio, providing his first comments on his condition since Hendrick Motorsports announced Thursday that he would miss the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at New Hampshire race for concussion-like symptoms.
Gordon told Hendrick he had to be kidding. He said he doesn’t know if any of his drivers are hurt unless they tell him, and the first he heard of the symptoms was last week. The four-time champion was on vacation in the south of France when team owner Rick Hendrick called.
In fact, Gordon is the probable sub if Earnhardt is sidelined for additional races. “This kind of thing can beat you down and get you sad, but I’ve got a lot of good people around me and a lot of people supporting me”.
Carl Edwards noted that Earnhardt’s issue “must be serious” if he didn’t race and said he respected Earnhardt’s decision.
Jeff Gordon replacing Dale Earnhardt Jr.as driver of the No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Sprint Cup vehicle may not be a one-and-done deal. Duchardt could not say if Earnhardt actually had a concussion and declined to speculate on when he might return. I got really loose, got up the race track and got into him. Earnhardt was involved in a 22-car wreck in Daytona this month and wrecked last month at Michigan International Speedway.
“I wasn’t feeling great the week going into Kentucky and thought it was possibly severe allergies”. I saw a family doctor and was given medicine for allergies and a sinus infection.
“After further evaluation, they felt it best for me to sit out”.
Team general manager Doug Duchardt said he didn’t notice any difference in Earnhardt during their Tuesday competition meeting. “To get healed, he needed to be out of the auto”.
The 41-year-old Earnhardt is winless this season and 13th in the points standings.
Missing more than one race could make it tough for Earnhardt to make the Chase on points, especially with his recent struggles on the track. NASCAR has never denied a waiver request.
Hendrick was asked if his popular driver might be facing career-threatening circumstances, if his career could be shortened by head injuries. Four laps later, a fender rubbing a tire as a result of the contact ended up in a flat and a crashed into the wall. Upon his death, his brain will go to the Concussion Legacy Foundation, which has ties to Boston University.
“There’s been no athlete as prominent as Dale Earnhardt Jr. who has been willing to consistently talk about concussions, educate the public and set the right example”, he said. It’s not clear whether Earnhardt will need to take more time off, but there have been rumblings online that his history of concussions could send him into early retirement.
Earnhardt confirmed during April that he will donate his brain for medical research into concussion effects. Because brain trauma could impair reaction time and cause brutal wrecks at over 200 miles per hour, Nowinski said, “the risks are more significant than perhaps in other sports”.
Lorenzen hasn’t been forgotten by today’s racing stars they appreciate a driver who won 26 times in the Cup series. He drives part-time in the second-tier Xfinity Series for Earnhardt’s JR Motorsports team.
Hendrick said Gordon was concerned about Earnhardt, but that if needed for Indy, “I think he’s a pretty good backup”.
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Sunday’s New Hampshire 301 was also a way different experience than Bowman has ever had in the past in Sprint Cup – a better one.
