– Jeff Gordon may not be done racing in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series after all.
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There is one ex-Hendrick driver and four-time Sprint Cup champion who adores racing at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, though, and Sprint Cup heads there next weekend for the Brickyard 400.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.is out with concussion-like symptoms for this weekend’s race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
The team already had Bowman in place as a backup for New Hampshire and stuck with that plan to keep him as the full substitute driver.
“I wasn’t feeling great the week going into Kentucky and thought it was possibly severe allergies”.
“I’m one of those guys who just wants to drive the heck out of it and make it go fast and that’s the opposite of Loudon”, he said.
Doctors declined to clear him to race after evaluating him in Charlotte this week.
I think we just want to take it one race at a time.
Gordon, who has called NASCAR races for Fox Sports this season and expressed interest in replacing the departed Michael Strahan as Kelly Ripa’s new “Live” co-host, tweeted he was in France this weekend, which ruled him out for a potential return at New Hampshire. He made it to the championship race at Homestead-Miami Speedway, surrounded by a mob of well-wishers including Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton.
Ironically, it was only this spring that Earnhardt, Jr. volunteered to donate his brain to science after his death, a choice that was carefully considered and made in the interest of improving the science about concussions as well as the sport he loves.
Gordon has run in every Brickyard race since the inaugural event in 1994, winning a record five times -1994, 1998, 2001, 2004 and 2014. The 41-year-old Earnhardt told reporters that he believed the symptoms were incurred in crashes at MI on June 12 and at Daytona on July 2. Obviously, it may happen under tough circumstances, but if a team is going to have a fill-in driver, they might as well get the best available person out there and Gordon qualifies for the role.
“I asked him what he was doing next week”, Hendrick told reporters, via USA Today. I’ve seen the culture change for the better in the National Basketball Association and other sports.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s misfortune may turn into a coming-out party for Jeff Gordon – coming out of retirement, that is. Earnhardt was involved in a 22-car wreck in Daytona this month and also wrecked last month at Michigan International Speedway. That decision related to the two concussions suffered by Earnhardt, Jr.in 2012. When medication for allergies and a sinus infection failed, Earnhardt dug deeper and met with a neurological specialist.
NASCAR required the next year for drivers to submit a baseline neurocognitive assessment.
NASCAR drivers don’t wear ear accelerometers, and adding them to the drivers’ gear would require NASCAR approval because they count as an electronic recording device in the vehicle. I think putting any speculation past that is assuming that Dale is not going to be ready for that amount of time.
Even though his dreams of a career-first top-10 finish in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series ended in a wreck against the frontstretch wall, Alex Bowman couldn’t hide his elation.
Earnhardt was diagnosed with “concussion-like symptoms earlier this week”.
Dale is special to me, take the driving part away.
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“Actually, we were getting him an ear, nose, and throat doctor; that’s what we were lining up”, the owner said.
