Gordon will drive for Junior as long as team needs him
Jeff Gordon weaved his way through a mob of fans outside the media center, all screaming for an autograph from a driver they thought would never again wear a firesuit. He stepped over the tripod legs of three TV cameras lined against a side wall, patted a reporter on the back and took a seat on the dais where he was peppered with questions about how long his comeback tour might last.
“I’ll be here as long as they need me,” Gordon said. “I say that very loosely.”At Pocono Raceway in Long Pond, Pa., Gordon made it seem for hundreds of fans Friday like he never left racing. Gordon 2.0 will last only as long as Dale Earnhardt Jr. remains out with concussion-like symptoms. Earnhardt will miss his third consecutive race Sunday and Gordon will drive the No. 88 Chevrolet for the second weekend in a row. There is no timetable on Earnhardt’s return.
What should have been a leisurely first summer of retirement for a driver once sponsored by AARP has instead turned into a hectic world tour for Gordon. He was vacationing in France when team owner Rick Hendrick asked him to come out of retirement. He returned to racing at the Brickyard in Indianapolis. Then it was off to a sponsorship commitment in Mexico. This weekend, he looks to extend his track record for wins with his seventh.
Meanwhile on the track, Martin Truex Jr. turned a lap of 179.244 mph and won the pole Friday at Pocono. Truex won his third pole this season in the No. 78 Toyota and the 10th of his career.
Stewart insurer off hook
A federal judge in New York ruled that the insurance carrier for NASCAR driver Tony Stewart does not have to defend or indemnify him in a lawsuit brought by the family of a driver who died after being struck by Stewart’s car in a race. The judge that Axis Insurance Co.’s policy with Stewart “unambiguously limited” the insurer’s liability to specific races. The family of Kevin Ward Jr. is suing Stewart, claiming that he acted recklessly when he struck and killed the young driver in an open-wheel race at Canandaigua Motorsports Park in August 2014. An Ontario County grand jury cleared Stewart of any criminal wrongdoing.