NASCAR fans will get a blast from the past this weekend when Jeff Gordon comes out of retirement to temporarily replace injured driver Dale Earnhardt Jr.in the No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports auto.
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Earnhardt Jr. missed last Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
Earnhardt’s injury puts Gordon, who spent his teen years, in Pittsboro, Indiana – located about 15 miles from Indianapolis Motor Speedway – in a Sprint Cup auto for the first time since last year’s season finale in Miami.
“I actually mentioned that to him”, Bickford said.
Jeff Gordon will come out of retirement to fill in for Earnhardt this weekend at Indianapolis Motor Speedway should Earnhardt not be able to drive.
Jeff Gordon is coming back to NASCAR, but not in the No. 24 vehicle. Were all proud of him and looking forward to having him racing soon.. The 41-year-old driver, who has 13 poles and 26 wins, sat out for two races in 2012 after suffering a concussion at Talladega Superspeedway. “I took the ImPACT Test, 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”.
After receiving a medical evaluation on Tuesday, Dale Earnhardt Jr. told fans via his “Dale Jr”.
“Our focus is giving Dale all the time he needs to recover”, team owner Rick Hendrick said. He had a crash at MI speedway on June 12th and another hard crash during the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona on July 2nd.
Many spent time and money to be in Homestead and buy the Gordon retirement merchandise as a memory to cherish. Since retiring at the end of last season, he served primarily as a commentator for Fox Sports.
Earnhardt missed last week’s race at New Hampshire due to concussion-like symptoms after crashes in races at MI and Daytona.
Gordon, who turns 45 next month, was approached about possibly filling in by owner Rick Hendricks – who employed Gordon for nearly a quarter of a century. NASCARs most popular driver has been battling balance issues and nausea since a July 2 crash at Daytona. He has not given a timetable for his return.
“I put my health and quality of life as a top priority”, he said. The company, formerly the DuPoint paint division, has a long association with Gordon and already had agreed to sponsor four of the next five races for the No. 88 vehicle.
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I’ve heard from more than a few Gordon fans thrilled their hero is coming back, even if it is for one more race at a track where he’s been phenomenal during his career. “I am going to take this slow and strictly take the advice of my doctors”. If he returns before the Chase, he will likely be out of the top 16 in points and could need a win to make it.
