{"id":33729,"date":"2016-12-09T12:49:36","date_gmt":"2016-12-09T20:49:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/?p=33729"},"modified":"2016-12-09T12:49:36","modified_gmt":"2016-12-09T20:49:36","slug":"dale-earnhardt-jr-medically-cleared-to-return-to-racing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/dale-earnhardt-jr-medically-cleared-to-return-to-racing\/","title":{"rendered":"Dale Earnhardt, Jr. Medically Cleared to Return to Racing"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Dale<\/p>\n

NASCAR fans of Dale Earnhardt, Jr. are jubilant after hearing Hendrick Motorsports announce on Thursday that NASCAR\u2019s most popular driver for 14 consecutive years is returning to the cockpit in time to compete in the 2017 Daytona 500.<\/p>\n

He was medically cleared to resume NASCAR competition after making a full recovery from a concussion following a test session at Darlington Raceway on Wednesday afternoon.<\/p>\n

Dr. Micky Collins, medical director of the UPMC Sports Medicine Concussion Program in Pittsburgh, cleared the 42-year old Earnhardt, in consultation with Charlotte neurosurgeon Dr. Jerry Petty, who attended the Darlington test.<\/p>\n

\"Dale<\/p>\n

\u201cDale is one of the hardest-working patients I\u2019ve ever encountered,\u201d Collins said.\u00a0 \u201cHe\u2019s done everything we\u2019ve asked, and we believe he is ready to compete at a professional level again and can withstand the normal forces of a race car driver.\u00a0 Dale has been very open with us, and we\u2019ve had plenty of time for his treatment, so we feel very good about his long-term prospects and how this has been managed by everyone involved.\u201d<\/p>\n

Earnhardt completed 185 laps during a nearly five-hour session, driving his Chevrolet SS at Darlington under the guidance of his crew chief Greg Ives. In addition to the on-track test, which was observed by NASCAR, the driver has logged more than 15 hours in a racing simulator during his recovery.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel great, and I\u2019m excited to officially be back,\u201d Earnhardt said. \u00a0\u201cI expected things to go really well yesterday, and that\u2019s exactly what happened. \u00a0Actually getting in a race car was an important final step, and it gives me a ton of confidence going into 2017. \u00a0Thanks to the staff at Darlington for hosting our team and to NASCAR for giving us the opportunity to put a car on the track. \u00a0I\u2019ll do more testing in January to help knock the rust off. \u00a0When it\u2019s time to go to Daytona, I\u2019ll be ready.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alex Bowman (10 races) and four-time NASCAR champion Jeff Gordon (eight races) handled substitute driving duties for the No. 88 team during Earnhardt\u2019s recovery. \u00a0He missed the final 18 races of the 2016 NASCAR season beginning with the July 17 event in New Hampshire.<\/p>\n

\u201cDale deserves so much credit,\u201d said Rick Hendrick, owner of Hendrick Motorsports. \u00a0\u201cI\u2019m proud of him for listening to his body and standing up to take responsibility for his health. \u00a0He\u2019s worked extremely hard and set a terrific example for others. \u00a0It\u2019s great news as we go into the off-season, and we can\u2019t wait to see him back on the racetrack at Daytona.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Dale
Team owner Rick Hendrick talks about his expectations. (Photo by Bob Leverone\/NASCAR via Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Alex Bowman will race the No. 88 Nationwide Chevrolet SS in the Feb. 18 season-opening, non-points The Clash at Daytona International Speedway, which will feature pole position winners from the previous year. \u00a0Bowman won the No. 88 team\u2019s lone 2016 pole at Phoenix in November.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlex did such a great job in the car this year, and I felt like he deserved another opportunity,\u201d Earnhardt said. \u00a0\u201cWhen I spoke with Rick and the team about him driving The Clash, everyone agreed that he more than earned it and Nationwide was 100-percent on board. \u00a0I\u2019m really grateful to him and Jeff for what they did for our team, and I\u2019m glad Alex is getting another run with us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Dale
Dale Earnhardt Jr. practices for the 57th Annual Daytona 500. (Photo by Robert Laberge\/NASCAR via Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NASCAR\u2019s most popular driver for 14 consecutive years is returning to the cockpit in time to compete in the 2017 Daytona 500. <\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":33732,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3424,3470,5029],"tags":[554,3113,1434,549,547,127,41],"class_list":["post-33729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","category-news","category-racing","tag-2014-nhra-mello-yello-drag-racing-series","tag-alex-bowman","tag-dale-earnhardt-jr","tag-daytona-500","tag-jay-wells","tag-nascar","tag-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/EarnhardtJr_Dale_Tradition20163.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p42YSK-8M1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33729","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33729"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33729\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33734,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33729\/revisions\/33734"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}