Rick Hendrick admits it's tough on Dale Earnhardt Jr. to be sidelined from racing at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, but that the driver's health must come first.
Still, he said it was the right call to keep Earnhardt out of action until he is healthy.
Earnhardt has missing Sunday's New Hampshire 301 concussion-like symptoms. Alex Bowman is driving the No. 88 Chevrolet.
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Hendrick said the team will make a decision by Wednesday morning on whether Earnhardt can race next weekend at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
"It's really tough," he told NBCSN. "It's tough on Dale. He wants to be here for the team, for his fans, for his sponsor and it's hard, but when the doctors say you need to sit it out and let's run some more tests and make sure you're feeling 100 percent."
There is no timetable yet for Earnhardt's return to racing.
Hendrick said that Earnhardt will undergo more tests this week.
"He’s running through a bunch of tests and he’s going to have some more tests the first of the week," he said on Sunday at New Hampshire. "He’s doing good. He wants to be in the car. The doctors are going to tell him when it’s okay for him to be back. And so, I know he’s anxious. We want him back as soon as the doctors give him clearance.”
In 2012, Junior missed two races during the Chase for the Sprint Cup, also with concussion-like symptoms.
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"We love Dale Earnhardt, we love all of our drivers, and we want to see them good and healthy and to punish yourself when you don't feel good — it's tough enough if you've just got a bad cold — it's hard to get out of the car but we want him for the long haul, he wants to race for a long time and so we're going to let the doctors make those decisions," Hendrick told NBCSN.
"It's really hard at first and then the more you think about it, it's the right thing to do for him and it's the right thing to do for the team and everyone else. He wants to get back and we want him back so we'll just take it day by day."
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If Earnhardt is unable to race at Indianapolis, the team announced Thursday that Jeff Gordon will fill in. Gordon won four championships driving for Hendrick Motorsports. He has five wins at Indy.
Hendrick said Gordon was concerned about Earnhardt, but that if needed for Indy, "I think he's a pretty good backup."
Gordon retired after the 2015 season, when he was in the Chase final four. Reports said he was considered for this weekend at New Hampshire, but Hendrick decided to go with Bowman because Gordon was on vacation in Europe.