Pit stop difficult on Earnhardt

SPRINT CUP

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.

“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 yesterday 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 friend 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.”

The 41-year-old Earnhardt 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.’ ”

Gordon will substitute for Earnhardt in one more race in the 88. Alex Bowman will drive in the other races left this season.