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HEMBREE: Junior’s Absence – And Its Ramifications
NASCAR’s most popular driver sits, and the sport takes a moment to adjust…
Mike Hembree  |  Posted October 11, 2012   Concord, NC
Dale Earnhardt Jr. (Center) is flanked by Team owner Rick Hendrick (Left) and crew chief Steve Letarte (Right) as he speaks to the media at Charlotte Motor Speedway. (Photo: Getty Images)
Dale Earnhardt Jr. is not going to race this weekend. Or the next. Potentially longer.

After all the talk in previous years about provisionals and top-35 start guarantees and other “protections” that have kept stock car racing’s most popular driver in a cozy cocoon of sorts as far as his name being in every Sprint Cup race, Earnhardt Jr.’s dramatic absence this week occurs because he’s being forced to the sidelines.

He is scheduled to miss Saturday night’s race at Charlotte Motor Speedway and the next one at Kansas Speedway after suffering lingering headaches from Sunday’s vicious crash at Talladega Superspeedway and undergoing a series of medical tests this week.

The ramifications are many.

First and foremost, Earnhardt Jr. has some healing ahead. He stressed that he will avoid the speedway this weekend to relax and give his body time to recover from the concussion he suffered Sunday and the probable remainders of the vicious crash that could have derailed his season – indeed, his career – in late August during tire testing at Kansas Speedway.

Earnhardt Jr. and his team assume he will resume driving in the Oct. 28 race at Martinsville Speedway, perhaps one of the better tracks on the tour for a return of this sort. If Earnhardt Jr.’s headaches persist, however, there is the possibility his off time could be extended.

The most significant impact beyond Earnhardt Jr.’s health is that the longer he sits, the bigger the consequences for the sport. He is NASCAR’s biggest star, and the guy who is second isn’t particularly close.

There is no question that the fact that Junior will not race Saturday at Charlotte and at Kansas next week will cost both tracks ticket sales, particularly in the close-to-race-date “walk-up” sales that can make big differences in the continuing challenges at ticket booths.

Television ratings? Those could feel an impact, also, although the curiosity factor concerning how Regan Smith, who is filling in for Earnhardt Jr., might perform in a top-flight car could pull in some viewers.

The lasting imprint from this latest revelation concerning drivers and concussions, however, should be in the realm of a more proactive NASCAR approach to its role as the high sheriff of the garage.

Every other competitor should be at least unsettled by the fact that Earnhardt Jr. competed in six races (including at the super-fast Atlanta track) while he was – as he put it – “80 to 90 percent” and without having been examined by a neurologist after the huge impact at Kansas.

Unlike most other sports, a driver whose skills are limited by injury is not only a potential danger to himself but also a threat to the health of others. Drivers have raced with injuries virtually since the beginnings of NASCAR, but more than a few red flags should pop up as a result of questionable decisions by drivers who basically depend on their own diagnoses.

Earnhardt Jr.’s absence from the sport, which clearly has its negative angles, carries with it two intriguing side stories – Regan Smith’s chance to drive a very competitive race car and AJ Allmendinger’s sudden return from oblivion.

Smith owns a Cup win (at Darlington last season) but is losing his Furniture Row Racing ride to Kurt Busch. He was scheduled to fill in at Phoenix Racing this week in place of the departing Busch, but Rick Hendrick’s late-night call to team owner James Finch opened the door for Smith to take the seat of the 88 for the next two races, the sort of opportunity drivers chase in their dreams.

And Allmendinger? He’s back from the dead, a driver whose career was in tatters in mid-summer after NASCAR suspended him for failing a drug test. He raced through NASCAR’s rehabilitation program and was quick to accept the offer by Phoenix to race again.

For all three – Junior, Smith and the Dinger, it’s a new world this week.

Mike Hembree is NASCAR Editor for SPEED.com and has been covering motorsports for 30 years. He is a six-time winner of the National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year Award.
The opinions reflected herein are solely those of the above commentator and are not necessarily those of SPEED.com, FOX, NewsCorp, or SPEED
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