NASCAR: Earnhardt offers health update

Dale Earnhardt Jr. says his mind is sharp, but balance and nausea meant he "definitely wouldn't have been able to drive a racecar" this past weekend at New Hampshire.

Earnhardt dropped in a quick update Sunday night during "The Dale Jr. Download," his weekly podcast on Dirty Mo Radio, saying balance and nausea had been a struggle for four or five days. But testing showed his brain function was good.

"My mind feels real sharp," said Earnhardt, who lamented not being at the track. "I took the ImPACT Test, which measures thought process and the speed of your thought process and memory and retaining memory, and my results matched my baseline, which made me feel confident that my brain was pretty sharp. It feels good."

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Earnhardt had endured two wrecks in a three-race stretch from June 19 to July 2. Three days before the New Hampshire race, Hendrick Motorsports announced he would sit out the race after experiencing concussion-like symptoms. Alex Bowman, who drives part-time for Earnhardt's JR Motorsports in the Xfinity Series, filled in at New Hampshire and finished 26th, although Earnhardt said the result didn't reflect the great job Bowman did.

Earnhardt didn't give a timetable for his return, although an announcement is expected Wednesday. Jeff Gordon, who has won a record five times at the Brickyard, would un-retire to stand in if Earnhardt cannot race. In the meantime, Earnhardt said the process will require "patience."

"I'm going to continue to work with my doctors, understand more about the injury and how to treat it. They can give me exercises that can retrain my brain to handle what I need to handle. It's just going to take a lot of patience. I put my health and quality of life as a top priority. I always do that. So I'm going to take this slow and strictly follow the advice of my doctors, try to learn as much as I can to be smarter and wiser.

"It's always been a real experience going through this kind of stuff because you learn so much through the experience. I've got some great doctors to learn from."

Earnhardt expressed thanks for the many people who have offered their support.

"I miss everybody. ... It really does make me feels good, to be honest to hear everybody wishing me well. It really does my heart good. This kind of thing can beat you down and get you sad, but I've got a lot of good people around me, lot of people supporting me. Hope we can get back on the track soon."