Martinsville Welcomes Back Dale Jr. This Weekend

Dale Earnhardt, Junior has been cleared to race again this weekend at Martinsville after sitting out the last two races because of concussion concerns. He ran over a hundred laps in a test session at a track in Georgia on Monday. After an evaluation the following day he was given medical clearance. He hasn’t had any headaches since last Friday. There haven’t been any other symptoms, so he’s good to go. Because he was forced to miss the last two races, he’s last in the Sprint Cup Chase standings, 122 points back of leader Brad Keselowski.

Keselowski has a seven-point lead over Jimmie Johnson entering the weekend. Johnson has yet to win during this year’s Chase. He’s come in second twice though.

Tony Stewart won this race last year with Jimmie Johnson coming in second.

It was one crash after another last year. 18 cautions in all and all of them were for accidents.

This has been a good track for Jeff Gordon. Gordon stands 8th in the standings and could use a good run this week if he has any hopes of winning the championship. He has seven wins, seven poles and 31 Top-10 finishes at Martinsville.

Martinsville is the oldest track in the Sprint Cup series, hosting Cup races since 1949 and two a year since 1950.