Friday New Hampshire Notebook
July 15, 2016
Notebook Items:
·
If Dale Earnhardt Jr. is sidelined for Indy, Jeff Gordon will replace him
·
No sophomore slump for Edwards
·
Short strokes
By Reid Spencer
NASCAR Wire Service
If Dale Earnhardt Jr. is sidelined for Indy, Jeff Gordon will replace him
LOUDON,
N.H. – Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s misfortune may turn into a coming-out party
for Jeff Gordon – coming out of retirement, that is.
Earnhardt
is sidelined with concussion-like symptoms and won’t compete in
Sunday’s New Hampshire 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway (1:30 p.m. ET
on NBCSN). His status for future
races this season remains uncertain.
Should
Earnhardt have to miss next week’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at
Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Hendrick Motorsports already has a super
sub lined up to replace him.
“If
Dale is not able to go to Indianapolis, we will put Jeff Gordon in the
car,” said Hendrick Motorsports General Manager Doug Duchardt.
The
choice is logical. Fox Sports has completed its portion of the Sprint
Cup season, and Gordon’s services as a booth analyst aren’t required for
the rest of the year. Consider
also that Gordon has five victories at the Brickyard, a record for the
vaunted track.
Whether
Gordon returns to race at Indy, however, depends on the prognosis for
Earnhardt, who was advised by doctors this week not to race at Loudon.
Alex Bowman, initially contacted
as a possible relief for Earnhardt before the extent of his condition
was known, is driving the No. 88 Chevrolet this weekend.
“Alex
came in Tuesday night to get fitted for the car,” Duchardt said. “And
at that time, it was in the contingency that he would have to backfill
for Dale after Dale started
the race.
“Dale
then went and saw a team of neurologists and in the past two days has
been going through some tests. (Thursday) around noon is when I found
out that Dale could not be in
the car for this weekend, based on their suggestion.”
Earnhardt’s
health issues also bring an important opportunity to Bowman, who drives
a limited NASCAR XFINITY Series schedule for JR Motorsports.
“Yeah,
it’s been a crazy 12 hours, for sure,” Bowman said on Friday morning at
NHMS. “I think the first time (crew chief) Greg (Ives) called me, I was
at work, so I didn’t even
answer. But it’s definitely not the circumstances that I want to get an
opportunity like this. Obviously I’m hoping Dale feels better, but at
the same time, it’s the best opportunity I’ve ever had in my life.
“I’m
ready to just plug into their program and do my job. I’ll give them the
best feedback I can and go from there. I’m really confident in the
whole team. Obviously, they bring
great race cars to the track every weekend, so if I just do my job, I
feel like we would be good to plug into it.”
Duchardt declined to speculate whether Gordon would substitute for Earnhardt in additional races, if necessary.
NO SOPHOMORE SLUMP FOR EDWARDS
Early in his debut season with Joe Gibbs Racing last year, Carl Edwards had a rough time.
But that was before he learned to go with the flow – or the “wave,” as he called it.
Edwards
won his first race with JGR in the 12th event of 2015, the Coca-Cola
600, and didn’t visit Victory Lane again until Labor Day weekend at
Darlington.
Within
the first 18 races of 2015, Edwards won back-to-back at Bristol and
Richmond and has posted 12 top 10s, including a second-place finish last
week at Kentucky Speedway.
Collectively, JGR drivers have won seven NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races
this year, with affiliated Furniture Row Racing driver Martin Truex Jr.
adding another.
“The
beginning of last year, I didn’t expect the changeover to JGR… it was a
bigger deal than I expected,” Edwards said on Friday afternoon at New
Hampshire Motor Speedway. “I
tried a little too hard to begin with and made some moves and mistakes
that I hadn’t made in a long time. I settled in and feel like I’m doing a
better job now.
“I’m
riding the wave that is JGR. These guys, they’ve been working a long
time to get to this point, and I’m the lucky recipient of that hard
work. Right now you can just look
at the scoreboard every week, or the speed charts – our Toyotas are
really fast. I can’t point to one thing. I think overall it’s TRD
(Toyota Racing Development), JGR – all the folks that do this and us
teammates working together that gives us those results.”
SHORT STROKES
Martin
Truex Jr. was fastest in opening NASCAR Sprint Cup Series practice at
New Hampshire Motor Speedway, turning a lap at 133.562 mph. Fellow
Toyota drivers Carl Edwards and
Kyle Busch were second and third, respectively…
Bobby
Santos won Friday afternoon’s NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour event at
NHMS, beating Eric Goodale to the finish line by .127 seconds. Veteran
Ron Silk was third, .698 seconds
back. NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver Ryan Newman held his own against
the modified stars, finishing 10th.
No comments:
Post a Comment