Dale Earnhardt Jr. plans to find the positives in Jeff Gordon driving his car, including getting advice from the four-time champion. In the meantime, he's listening to his doctor's advice before deciding when to return to racing.
Speaking during his weekly podcast , Earnhardt said he’s continuing the daily “physical and mental exercises” his doctors gave him, something that takes two to two-and-a-half hours daily.
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Earnhardt’s not complaining, though. He has missed the last two Sprint Cup races with concussion-like symptoms, and his Hendrick Motorsports team already announced that Gordon will also drive the car in Sunday’s race at Pocono.
Earnhardt, who also missed two races with concussion-like symptoms in 2012, said his is simply an injury one cannot rush.
“You can race with some ailments," he said. "You can race with a bad wrist or we’ve seen Denny (Hamlin) and guys race with bad knees. There’s been some guys that have done some pretty incredible things. I raced with a broken shoulder blade, broke it in Milwaukee on Saturday and raced on Sunday. There’s certain things that you can race through. But one of the things that you cannot race through is concussion-like symptoms.
“The balance deal is a critical part of being able to drive a race car and this process is going to take a little bit longer. I think that’s what I was trying to convey when I was telling you guys how I was going to take this slow and listen to the advice of my doctors, I’m not going to go against that advice, no matter what. I can’t play around at this age and, with my history, I definitely don’t need to get cute.”
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He said he’s going for another evaluation “soon” to see where he stands and to let the doctors tell him where they think he is, specifically having them “help us make the decision on what we’re going to do for Watkins Glen.” He plans another update next Monday.
As to Gordon's run to 13th in Sunday’s race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Earnhardt understands how much of a challenge it must have been for Gordon with the changes to the cars that have evolved since Gordon last raced in November of 2015. And with the heat, as it was the third hottest Cup race at the Brickyard since the series started competing there in 1994.
Gordon said he was looking forward to talking more about the race with Gordon. He pointed to times in the past when drivers used to test together, and sometimes got into one another’s car even, mentioning how his father Dale Earnhardt would get into Richard Petty’s car and how the drivers would then give advice to one another.
That’s how he is approaching having Gordon in his car at Indy and Pocono.
“As unfortunate as the situation is, we need to try to gain something out of it,” he said. “I think our guys are excited about the opportunity to work with Jeff, and they know he’s capable. It’s pretty fun to see it happening and trying to learn from it. I’m trying to stay plugged in and in communication with them as we go so that I’m up to speed and when I get back in the car it’s real seamless.”