DOVER, Del. — Dale Earnhardt Jr. watched his ol’ No. 88 Chevy roll onto pit road and felt a tinge of melancholy knowing Jeff Gordon would slide into the seat.
Earnhardt was back at a NASCAR track, yet far removed from a NASCAR comeback.
THE CHASE CONTINUES
WHAT: NASCAR Chase for the Sprint Cup Championship
WHERE: Dover International Speedway
WHEN: 2 p.m. Sunday
TELEVISION: FOX
OF NOTE: Martin Truex Jr. and Kevin Harvick are the only drivers to earn spots in the Round of 12 with wins. … Jimmie Johnson has won 10 times at Dover, with 20 top-10 finishes. Johnson last won at the track in 2015. … Chris Buescher essentially needs to win this weekend to advance to the final 12. But he did take first in an Xfinity race in Delaware in 2015.
“It’s hard not to climb in the car before Jeff does,” he said.
Without a ride, Earnhardt instead took a temporary spot as NASCAR’s most popular crew member. He wore a hoodie and a hat instead of a firesuit as he made one of his few public appearances at a track since his season ended in July because of a concussion. Earnhardt posed for selfies with fans and seemed in good spirits watching practice from the pit box Saturday at Dover International Speedway.
Earnhardt enjoyed being one of the guys again at Hendrick Motorsports. He assisted with his No. 88 team and took an interest in helping crew chief Greg Ives during Gordon’s practice run on a session interrupted by rain.
He was even teased by Elliott Sadler as they waited out the rain.
“I didn’t know you had your own entourage following you around,” said Sadler, laughing. “That’s pretty cool, man.”
Earnhardt, 41, said he was feeling better, though he didn’t know when he would be cleared to return to racing. Earnhardt has used a race simulator to aid in his rehabilitation, which helped him work on his motor skills, and he’s added more exercises to his daily routine.
But the symptoms linger.
“Walking through the garage and signing autographs is tough,” he said. “Your balance gets bad. A lot of it is visual, a lot of the things happening with your peripheral (vision) and stuff. That’s something that’s going to challenge it. That’s pretty much it. My eyes got a lot better. I didn’t really notice issues with my eyes quite as much anymore. The balance stuff is still needing some work.”
Earnhardt, long NASCAR’s most popular driver, has said he hoped to be cleared for the 2017 Daytona 500. But when that date might come? He has no idea.
“I’m not ready, I know that. I’ll know when I’m ready,” he said. “It’s not one of them things that has a schedule. You don’t know when you’re going to be like, ‘all right, I’m good. Let’s go do this.’ ”
It was an odd sight: Earnhardt in street clothes talking with Gordon in a firesuit in the garage. Gordon retired at the end of last season before he was pressed into service by team owner Rick Hendrick to replace Earnhardt in select races.
Gordon will substitute for him in one more race in the 88. Alex Bowman will drive in the other races remaining this season.
With a boost from a two-time Daytona 500 champion, Gordon topped the speed chart with a lap of 160.514 mph. Kyle Larson was seventh on the speed chart and the fastest of the 16 Chase drivers at 158.898.
Teammates were excited to have Junior back.
“I haven’t seen a lot of Dale away from the race track. I completely understand how difficult it is to come to the track and feel productive,” six-time champion Jimmie Johnson said. “I can only imagine how hard it is to go to the track and watch your car race and then also how boring it would be because we do have the coolest job to sit in that race car.”
XFINITY: Rain washed out the race and there will be a Dover doubleheader Sunday.
The second-tier series race will start at 10 a.m. at Dover International Speedway.
The NASCAR Sprint Cup race is scheduled for 2:15 p.m.
Chase for the Sprint Cup championship drivers Joey Logano, Kyle Busch and Austin Dillon are scheduled to pull double duty.
Erik Jones is on the Xfinity pole in the series’ Chase race.
Elliott Sadler advanced to the second round with a win last week at Kentucky Speedway.
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