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SPEEDWAY, Ind. — Jeff Gordon ‘s “un-retirement” from competing in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series began in earnest Friday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
The four-time Sprint Cup Series champion is filling in for Hendrick Motorsports teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr. at Indianapolis and next weekend at Pocono Raceway while Earnhardt recovers from concussion-like symptoms.
Almost as surprising as Gordon’s return to the driver’s seat — he retired from full-time competition after the 2015 season — was his disclosure that he had been approached about filling in for the injured Tony Stewart in this year’s Daytona 500 .
Stewart, driver of the No. 14 Chevrolet and co-owner of the four-car organization, missed the first eight races after suffering a broken back in an off-road driving incident prior to the start of the 2016 season.
Gordon’s role as a FOX NASCAR analyst (the network provides coverage of the season’s first 16 points races) prohibited him from returning to competition.
“The crazy thing about all of this (is) I was asked to drive Tony Stewart ‘s car in Daytona to start the season,” Gordon said Friday. “I wasn’t able to do it because of my commitments to FOX. Now Rick (Hendrick, team owner) has some amazing ways to convince people into things that the average person might not be able to. I don’t know, maybe he could have called Eric Shanks or something, but no, I don’t think so.”
Shanks is President, COO and Executive Producer of FOX Sports.
Stewart is competing in his final season as a driver. Sunday’s Crown Royal Presents the Combat Wounded Coalition 400 at the Brickyard will be his final appearance at the famed 2.5-mile track, where he has earned two of his 49 career victories.
That Gordon was asked about filling in earlier this season was news to Stewart.
“I wasn’t (aware),” Stewart said, “but that would have been awesome. That probably would have been one of the coolest things to happen this season. If that happened, I would have been all for it. …
“I wasn’t aware of that, but that would have been a really cool deal for us.”
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