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WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. — Looking relaxed and casual in a ball cap, T-shirt and blue jeans, NASCAR superstar Dale Earnhardt Jr. smiled often and nodded his head in greeting as he held a press conference for the NASCAR media at Watkins Glen International Raceway Friday afternoon. This marked the first time he has formally addressed the media since stepping out of the drivers seat last month to recover from concussion-like symptoms.
“No,” Earnhardt said, he wasn’t planning on retirement.
And “no,” he added, he didn’t know when he would return to Sprint Cup competition as he continues to heal from a concussion doctors feel he suffered in a June 12 race accident at Michigan International Speedway.
“I just want to get better,” Earnhardt said. “Nothing else is really a priority except getting the symptoms to clear up and get back to feeling like yourself. That’s all I’m thinking about.
“The process isn’t as fast as you’d like it to be. I talk to my doctor every other day sometimes for an hour or two. It can become very frustrating. As a race car driver, we don’t have a lot of patience to begin with.”
The big question of whether the two-time Daytona 500 winning Earnhardt may opt to simply step away from the sport was asked in various forms throughout the half hour press gathering.
And each time, to each version of the question, Earnhardt reiterated that it was not his plan to retire. At one point, he even playfully chided a press member to go on and use the word “retirement.”
“I miss the competition, I miss being here, I miss the people,” Earnhardt said. “As (Hendrick Motorsports owner) Rick (Hendrick) would say, ‘We’ve got unfinished business.’
“But I’m not ready to stop racing. I’m not ready to quit. It’s a slower process and I wish it wasn’t. I don’t know how long it will take.”
“I’m not going to go in a car until doctors clear me. I trust what doctors are telling me.”
Further, Earnhardt said the idea of retirement hasn’t been brought up by either himself or his doctors throughout this healing period.
“My doctor thinks to get through the therapy and get through the symptoms, you don’t need to add stress,” Earnhardt explained. “The point right now is to get healthy and get right.
“Whenever that happens, it happens. It’s frustrating I’ve had to miss this many races. When we went to the doctors’ office, I never anticipated being out this long.”
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And, he added, “That’s not the conversation your doctor will have with you when he’s trying to get you right. All he cares about is fixing you. He doesn’t care about my racing or whatever I do as a profession. He’s just trying to fix what is wrong with me.”
What the doctors are telling Earnhardt is that this healing time with this type of injury is essentially a waiting game.
He has specific exercises he does for two to three hours daily to help his brain heal. And doctors have also suggested he put himself in situations he might not initially feel most comfortable in.
Earnhardt said the most pressing issues include ocular (vision) imbalance problems.
“My doctor wants to push me into situations that drive the symptoms, and that’s basically going somewhere that I’m not familiar with, or being in busy places,” Earnhardt said. “Going out to eat or going to lunch or coming here, my doctor calls that ‘exposure.’ This is probably the worst situation (laughs) as far as making my symptoms go haywire, but that’s what he wants.
“He wants me to do anything whether it’s going places and pushing myself to get into areas that give me anxiety and drive the symptoms.
“All the rehab drives the symptoms. They want me to push the symptoms so my body gets used to them and they become suppressed and then it’s no longer an issue.”
Earnhardt said he and the doctors haven’t yet discussed a specific path to returning to the race car. Right now they are focused on making Earnhardt better.
“I don’t know what the doctor would choose there,” he said. “Whether you could go symptom-free and go immediately back in the car. Or if they would maybe want you to be symptom free for a week or two weeks. I don’t know what he will do.”
“My doctor thinks that to get through the therapy and to get through the symptoms you don’t need to be adding stress to your life. The stress will slow down the process. So, going into those kinds of conversations aren’t even necessary at this particular point.
“The point right now is just to get healthy. 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.”
In the meantime, Earnhardt was certainly well-received at Watkins Glen. And vice versa.
Fans dressed in his t-shirts and hats stood in the garage hoping for a spotting.
PHOTOS: Junior’s press conference, in the garage, more from Watkins Glen
He visited with his No. 88 Chevrolet team in the garage before opening practice for this week’s Cheez-It 355 at the Glen and then hung out inside his team’s hauler visiting with crew and team. He expected to fly back to Charlotte before sunset.
Although his just-retired teammate Jeff Gordon is again filling in for Earnhardt this week (it’s Gordon’s 800th Cup start), his Chevy still has “Dale Jr.” written over the driver’s side window and “Earnhardt Jr.” across the front window shield.
Was nervous to do it, but I’m glad I came to @WGI today. It was cool to visit with friends. From fans to media, teams, and drivers.
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Dale Earnhardt Jr. (@DaleJr)
August 5, 2016