NASCAR: Earnhardt Jr. out, Gordon in for Indy

Dale Earnhardt Jr. will miss this weekend's Sprint Cup race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, as well as the following week's race at Pocono, after not being cleared to race due to concussion-like problems that surfaced before the July 9 race at Kentucky, his Hendrick Motorsports team confirmed Wednesday. Five-time Brickyard winner Jeff Gordon will fill in as previously announced. This marks Gordon's first time in a Sprint Cup car since last season's finale at Homestead.

"Our focus is giving Dale all the time he needs to recover," team owner Rick Hendrick, said in announcing the decision. "There's nothing we want more than to see him back in the racecar, but we'll continue to listen to the doctors and follow their lead. What's best for Dale is what's best for Hendrick Motorsports and everyone involved with the team. We're all proud of him and looking forward to having him racing soon."

Gordon, 44, has made all 797 of his career Cup starts for car owner Hendrick. He competed in his 23rd and final full-time Sprint Cup Series season in 2015.

"Jeff's a team player," Hendrick said. "I know he'll be ready, and I know Dale has incredible trust in him. It's going to be an emotional weekend (at Indianapolis) with Dale not being there and seeing Jeff back behind the wheel. Greg (Ives) and the team did a great job at New Hampshire, and they have the full support of our organization."

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, and he "definitely wouldn't have been able to drive a racecar."

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"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."

Earnhardt had endured two wrecks in a three-race stretch from June 19 to July 2. He felt unwell in the build-up to the Kentucky race, and initially put it down to allergies or a sinus infection.

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 told his podcast listeners that the recovery 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 has yet to win a race this year but is currently among the provisional Chase field based on his points score. He will need a waiver from NASCAR to qualify for the Chase now he is missing a race, but the series has already given one to Tony Stewart this season and 2015 champion Kyle Busch benefited from such a dispensation after breaking his leg last year.

Earnhardt expressed thanks in the podcast 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."