Dale Earnhardt Jr. will not compete in the July 17th NASCAR Sprint Cup race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway after experiencing concussion-like symptoms.
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Duchardt, who would not confirm whether Earnhardt has been diagnosed with a concussion, said Gordon, who retired previous year and just finished his first stint with Fox Sports in the NASCAR booth, would take over the No. 88.
Retired driver Jeff Gordon will return to the racetrack at next week’s Brickyard 400 if Dale Earnhardt Jr. doesn’t recover from his concussion-like symptoms. Collectively, JGR drivers have won seven NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races this year, with affiliated Furniture Row Racing driver Martin Truex Jr. adding another.
Alex Bowman will take Dale Jr.’s spot in the No. 88 Chevrolet racecar at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
But there is no protocol in place for drivers to be checked out if they are able to drive their damaged race cars back behind the wall.
Hendrick Motorsports general manager Doug Duchardt says Gordon has agreed to return and drive next week if he is needed at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
The 23-year-old Bowman has not raced in the Cup series this season and had no top-10 finishes in 71 starts over the 2014-2015 seasons. Jeff Gordon, 44, ended his 23-year career at the end of the 2015 NASCAR season – or so everyone thought. Gordon is calling his final race of the season Sunday for Fox Sports and then will head into the first significant downtime of his professional career.
Earnhardt was involved in a 22-car wreck in Daytona earlier this month but said last weekend that he was feeling fine and thought the problem was allergies. “I’m working with some great doctors to get well”, Earnhardt tweeted. When that didn’t help, I made a decision to dig a little deeper.
Earnhardt missed two races as the result of a pair of concussions in 2012. He’s reportedly suffering from concussion-like symptoms after a series of wrecks last month at Michigan International Speedway.
“I appreciate everyone’s support and prayers and will miss my team terribly this weekend”.
Duchardt said Earnhardt saw a team of doctors over two days and he learned he could not drive around noon Thursday. These guys, they’ve been working a long time to get to this point, and I’m the lucky recipient of that hard work. “I’m looking forward to treatment with the goal of getting back in the race vehicle when the doctors say I’m ready”.
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It remains unclear when Earnhardt will return to racing. It doesn’t matter as much as Earnhardt’s health, but it will matter in the circle of sports and competition. “We didn’t know of anything until he started talking to Greg (Ives, crew chief) about not feeling quite right in Kentucky”, he said.
