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Jeff Gordon isn’t ending his retirement before it really begins. The legendary No. 24 driver told FOXSports on Friday that he is not a candidate to fill in for the injured Tony Stewart .
Stewart sustained a serious back injury Sunday while driving a sand rail in the Glamis Dunes along the Arizona-California border. Gordon was in the group of drivers and told FOX that he felt especially bad about the accident because he invited Stewart to join the outing.
“I’ll be honest, the way I was feeling about it at the time, if I wasn’t in the FOX booth, I would fill in for him,” Gordon said in the exclusive interview.
WATCH: Dr. Jerry Punch explains Stewart’s injury
Stewart-Haas Racing‘s press release Thursday indicated the team expected Stewart, who had surgery on a lumbar vertebra fracture on Wednesday, to make a full recovery and compete later in 2016. There is not timetable for his return.
No interim driver for Stewart-Haas racing has been announced, though Mark Martin also eliminated himself as a possible substitute No. 14 driver.
RELATED: Martin’s one word answer about driving the No. 14