Jeff Gordon to replace Dale Earnhardt Jr. at Indianapolis and Pocono
Jeff Gordon is making his return to the Sprint Cup Series on Sunday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Hendrick Motorsports announced Wednesday the four-time Sprint Cup Series champion would take the place of Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the No. 88 car for the Brickyard 400. Earnhardt Jr. will miss two more races because of concussion worries. Gordon will also fill in at Pocono.
Earnhardt Jr. missed last week’s race at New Hampshire and was replaced by Alex Bowman. Gordon was vacationing in France.
“Our focus is giving Dale all the time he needs to recover,” Rick Hendrick said in a statement. “There’s nothing we want more than to see him back in the race car, but we’ll continue to listen to the doctors and follow their lead. What’s best for Dale is what’s best for Hendrick Motorsports and everyone involved with the team. We’re all proud of him and looking forward to having him racing soon.”
The team said Friday that if Junior was to miss the 400 that Gordon would take his place, a sign that the team was incredibly prepared for this exact situation to happen.
Gordon, now an analyst for Fox Sports, has five wins at Indianapolis, a track that can be considered his home track. Gordon’s family moved to Indiana when he was a teenager so he could pursue his driving career. He won the first Brickyard 400 in 1994 and also won the 2014 race. Gordon has won 93 races in the Sprint Cup Series and has 475 top-10 finishes in 797 career starts.
When Gordon said he was quitting the No. 24 car at the end of the 2015 season, he never used the word “retirement” and left open the possibility that he could still drive again, just not on a full-time basis. And, really, this is the only opportunity Gordon would have to be able to drive a race or few in the Cup Series.
Gordon can’t drive for another team outside HMS and the team is at the four-car NASCAR limit; it can’t field a car for Gordon on a part-time basis (Gordon is listed as the owner of the No. 48). So the absence of one of Hendrick’s drivers, at a track where Gordon has had a ton of success, is the perfect chance for the legendary driver to jump back into a car.
“Jeff’s a team player,” Hendrick said. “I know he’ll be ready, and I know Dale has incredible trust in him. It’s going to be an emotional weekend with Dale not being there and seeing Jeff back behind the wheel. [No. 88 crew chief Greg Ives] and the team did a great job at New Hampshire, and they have the full support of our organization.”
Thinking Gordon is automatically a contender for the win Sunday is a bit foolish. But it’s not a stretch to believe he could be a contender. While Hendrick has lagged a bit behind Joe Gibbs Racing and Team Penske this summer, Gordon’s still going to have a damn good piece of equipment. And if he isn’t too rusty and the car is dialed in, a top five is certainly possible.
Earnhardt Jr. said in his podcast on Sunday that he definitely wouldn’t have been able to drive at New Hampshire because of the balance issues and nausea he’d been experiencing. He did say that he felt his mind was “sharp” and that he performed well on an ImPACT concussion test and the HMS release noted he visited with doctors on Tuesday at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center’s sports concussion program.
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Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
