By alley - Aug 1, 2016, 7:12 PM ET

NASCAR: Earnhardt - Current state 'scary for me'

Nearly a month after being forced to step out of his car due to concussion-like symptoms, Dale Earnhardt Jr. says he has endured good days and bad in his efforts to return to the Sprint Cup Series before the end of the season.

But given the status quo, he's not entirely sure when that will happen.

"I’d love to race more," Earnhardt said Monday on

his weekly 'Dale Download' podcast

. "In my mind, my plan is to race more. I have plans to keep going. I’ll worry about that when I’m well. I'll talk to my doctors and ask what do I have left as far as racing. My doctors are confident they can make me stronger than I was before this event.

"But long term, I want to race more."

"Obviously with my history of concussions, knowing the event I had in Michigan, that wreck right there is where they believe I picked up this issue," Earnhardt said. "I didn't feel anything that next week. The off week, I went to Germany (on vacation), went to Sonoma, ran good, felt awesome. It was strange to me that these symptoms came out of nowhere. I didn't know what was wrong with me and why this came out of nowhere. But we started doing a lot of digging, and they seem to feel confident this occurred in Michigan."

Specifically, Earnhardt says doctors have diagnosed him with gaze stability, affecting vision and physical balance. He says the recovery process has often left him emotionally shaken.

"This is scary for me because of the way it's been different," Earnhardt said. "I'm having balance issues. I've never had balance issues before. The eye issues with the stability, I've never had that before. It didn't begin at the event. It started very slowly, gradually and continued to progress until it stopped and stayed where it is.

"I don't know what that tells me about how long this process is going to be. I felt like I had a good understanding of dealing with concussions in the past, but this is certainly a new one."

Earnhardt was replaced by Alex Bowman at New Hampshire, while four-time champion Jeff Gordon was called out of retirement to drive the No. 88 at Indianapolis and Pocono. The team has not announced who will drive the car this weekend at Watkins Glen.

Earnhardt has repeatedly said the past two weeks that the symptoms have plateaued. As a result, he goes to bed each night hoping to feel better, but receives different results on different mornings.

"You open your eyes and you go to the bathroom and you know nothing is better, nothing is worse, but nothing is better so you kind of get frustrated on those days," Earnhardt said. "So I reach out (to my doctor) and say, 'Hey tell me you can fix this. I need to hear that again.'

"He knows me well enough to know all I need is positive reinforcement. He knows I need that ... he reaches out to me sometimes too, and we have a good relationship. It's been real frustrating. I'm going to go to bed again tonight, and hope I wake up and feel different. And when I do, I'll be excited to tell everyone."

Earnhardt, who has won the NASCAR Most Popular Driver Award every year since 2003, recognizes that he's three weeks into what could be a long road to recovery. That often leaves him impatient and frustrated, eager to return to the sport he loves.

"It's been only three weeks since I first got checked out and that's a short time in the grand scheme of things," Earnhardt said. "But I'm very impatient and I want change now and I want improvement now. I'm constantly texting my doctor asking what I can do to get better tomorrow and he's like, 'you've got to realize this might be a process and you have to keep doing your exercises.'

"So every time I get checked out we'll treat it accordingly. I hope over time that this will make a difference. The treatment for gaze stability has been positive and I do like seeing my doctors and readjusting the treatments."

That treatment, for now, means Earnhardt is having to expose himself to public situations. His doctors have told him that anxiety causes his vision problems to flare up, meaning that Earnhardt needs to go out to eat or visit his race shop to purposely endure the symptoms. From there, he has to return home to recover.

Earnhardt's next follow-up will be on Tuesday, when he will meet with five specialists who will decide the next stage of his recovery. He even wishes his fans could be there with him just to understand what's happening.

"I have another year on this deal and me and [car owner Rick Hendrick]

have talked about our future

and what else we want to accomplish," Earnhardt said. "I wouldn't be as transparent if I was younger. I'd be scared to death if I was 25 going through this. At 41 I think its important for my piece of mind and it might help someone going through this."