By the time the 2016 NASCAR Sprint Cup season is done, Dale Earnhardt Jr. will have missed 18 races because of concussion symptoms and recovery.
It has been a trying season, to say the least, for the No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports team. Some might even say it felt 108 years long.
It has been so trying that crew chief Greg Ives thinks his team can learn a little bit about overcoming obstacles from baseball.
Specifically, from those loveable-losers-no-more Chicago Cubs.
For the @nationwide88 team, 2017 is time to be clutch. Learn from champions @Cubs . We will make it happen. Congrats.
— Greg Ives (@Ives_Greg)
November 3, 2016
But was the “clutch” part the Cubs overcoming a 3-1 deficit to the Cleveland Indians in the best-of-7 World Series to clinch the trophy?
Or is it simply “clutch” to finally, long at last, win the World Series after a famously lenghty World Series title drought that lasted 108 years?
Perhaps both? Whatever the case, it sounds like the No. 88 team is gearing up for Earnhardt Jr.’s expected return to the car next season, already.