Dale Earnhardt Jr. doesn’t know when he will return to racing – only that he feels confident he will.
Earnhardt, making a day trip to Watkins Glen International on Friday, continues to undergo treatment for concussion symptoms that have kept him out of the past two races and will again for Sunday’s Cheez-It 355 At The Glen. Whenever doctors give him clearance to return to racing, he said he hopes he’ll be ready.
“Our intentions are to get cleared and get back to racing,” Earnhardt said. “We are just taking it one evaluation at a time. It is frustrating to have to do it that way, but that is the process, and we hope and expect that when we go back for the next evaluation that we are symptom-free and can start to see a timeline develop. Until then, we are just taking it one evaluation at a time.”
Earnhardt, who described most of his symptoms as being related to ocular imbalance and stability, said there is no timetable for his return. That, he said, will come after doctors declare him symptom-free.
“The point right now is just to get healthy,” he said. “Just to get right. I’m not thinking about the what-ifs. I’m just listening to my doctors. We went into this with the intentions of getting back in the car when we get cleared. I think that is a possibility and so do my doctors. So I am excited about that. Whenever it happens, it happens.”
Earnhardt said he firmly believes he will race again.
“I have every intention of honouring my current contract (with Hendrick Motorsports),” he said. “I want to race. I miss the competition. I miss being here. I miss the people and as Rick likes to say, ‘We’ve got unfinished business.’ I’m not ready to stop racing. I’m not ready to quit. It’s a slower process. I wish it wasn’t. But I’m not going to go in the car until the doctors clear me.”
“The doctors won’t let me race. This is not my decision, but it’s the right decision and I trust what my doctors are telling me. When they say I’m good to go, I believe them. If they say I’m healthy and I can race, I’m going to race.”
Earnhardt said he is evaluated every couple of weeks. The only focus of his sessions with his doctor is getting better, not what might happen afterward.
“No, that is not the conversation your doctor is going to have with you when he is trying to get you right,” Earnhardt said. “You are just worrying about getting normal. All he cares about is fixing you. That is his job. He doesn’t care about my racing or whatever I do as a profession.”