Six-time Talladega Superspeedway winner Dale Earnhardt Jr. visited one of his favorite tracks Thursday for an action-packed day of greeting fans, mingling with the Alabama Gang, assisting the track with its landscaping duties and watching his father's No. 2 Chevrolet take a lap around the superspeedway.
The Hendrick Motorsports wheelman, sidelined for the rest of the season by concussion-like symptoms, was welcomed by Alabama Gang members Bobby Allison, Donnie Allison and short-track legend Red Farmer as an honorary member of the group.
The Alabama Gang, with deep roots in stock-car racing's early days, was the nickname earned by a group of notable NASCAR drivers -- the Allisons, Neil Bonnett, and Farmer among them -- with ties to the state. Talladega's back straightaway was named "The Alabama Gang Superstretch" in their honor in the spring of 2014.
Although Dale Earnhardt was not a part of the group, he remained great friends with the drivers -- especially Bonnett, a fellow outdoorsman. The group paid tribute to the first-ballot NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee as Donnie Allison wheeled Earnhardt's famous No. 2 Monte Carlo around the 2.66-mile track.
See glimpses from Dale Jr.'s day.
.@DaleJr doing some track landscaping and surprising fans at @TalladegaSuperS. #NW88JR pic.twitter.com/ptrIfuXW8y
— Nationwide 88 (@nationwide88) September 29, 2016
We have some REALLY cool stuff coming up with @DaleJr and the famed #AlabamaGang!
Keep an eye on Periscope & Facebook Live! pic.twitter.com/fT05pKOgrN
— TalladegaSuperspdwy (@TalladegaSuperS) September 29, 2016
Donnie, Bobby and Red welcome @DaleJr as an OFFICIAL Honorary Member of the #AlabamaGang! pic.twitter.com/JjCPAt99FJ
— TalladegaSuperspdwy (@TalladegaSuperS) September 29, 2016
Dale Sr.'s No. 2 Monte Carlo rides again with Donnie Allison at the wheel! #AlabamaGang https://t.co/HeBNAtQWh8
— TalladegaSuperspdwy (@TalladegaSuperS) September 29, 2016
Good times today @TalladegaSuperS promoting the race with the Alabama Gang. Tickets are on sale for the race on October 23rd. pic.twitter.com/vm6OZFTslx
— Dale Earnhardt Jr. (@DaleJr) September 29, 2016
I remember this old thing. @TalladegaSuperS Hall of Fame. The carpet is teal, I kid you not. Great choice pops. pic.twitter.com/UMn4RAe34L
— Dale Earnhardt Jr. (@DaleJr) September 29, 2016
How cool to rename the MRN booth @TalladegaSuperS in honor of Barney Hall! pic.twitter.com/7u24pIDUnM
— Dale Earnhardt Jr. (@DaleJr) September 29, 2016
NORTH WILKESBORO, N.C. -- Paint peels and memories fade but the echoes of the past still ring off the hillsides here.
Twenty years ago today, the checkered flag fell on the final NASCAR premier series race at North Wilkesboro Speedway.
Bob Flock won the first race, in 1949 and on dirt. Jeff Gordon won the last, in 1996 and on asphalt. The two races serve as bookends for a track that even after 20 years of silence serves as a reminder of the sport's colorful past.
For 48 years and 93 races, NASCAR teams made the trek to the secluded .625-mile track in the Brushy Mountains of northwestern North Carolina.
"It's one of the sport's most historic tracks, one that really helped put NASCAR on the map," car owner Richard Childress said. "A lot of people overlook that. But a lot of great things happened there. (Former series sponsor) R.J. Reynolds really supported it; Holly Farms back in the day … all those things were important to building our sport to what it is today."
Built by Wilkes County resident Enoch Staley and partners Lawson Curry and Jack and Charlie Combs, North Wilkesboro Speedway was a venue unlike any other -- in part because the front straightaway ran slightly downhill and the backstretch uphill.
It opened in 1947, two years before the debut of NASCAR's Strictly Stock Series, and hosted its first NASCAR premier series event in October of '49.
The Wilkes 200 featured a 22-car field and was the final race of the inaugural season for NASCAR's new featured series. Flock won the race but it was Red Byron, finishing 16th, who captured the series' first championship.
RELATED: Veterans share fond memories of track
'I felt like I was lost'
Thirty-eight drivers made it to Victory Lane at North Wilkesboro through the years, including 19 members currently in the NASCAR Hall of Fame. Richard Petty mastered the track, winning a record 15 times; Darrell Waltrip won 10 times.
No active full-time driver competing in the premier series today made a single start at the track.
Gordon was the last to win at North Wilkesboro in NASCAR's top division and the last active driver to compete there.
"I saw somewhere this year the last eight laps or so of the (final) race," Gordon told NASCAR.com. "That's the cool thing about it. If you look at the cars, there were no splitters, the air dams weren't on the ground, nothing was all sealed up. It was all about mechanical grip. Springs and shocks played a role. The driver played a role. Managing the tires and the brakes played a role. It was nice to be able to go there and focus on those things.
"North Wilkesboro was probably one of the most challenging short tracks that we went to. Hard to get ahold of, very slick, really unique. The banking and radius of the corners as well as the uphill, downhill aspect of it. It was just really old school. Very old school and I felt like I was lost the first couple of times that I went there.
"That's why that pole meant a lot to me the year before, because I felt like 'Boy, I don't know if I have what it takes to get around this track' and then the next year to win the race? I'm sure that's what was going through my mind; I thought I'd never win at this place."
Ray Evernham helped guide Gordon to three championships as crew chief of the No. 24 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports. But it took some doing, and eight career starts, before the duo solved the riddle of the unique little track.
"I just loved that place," Evernham said. "The fact that it would change throughout the day and you really had to manage your car and you really, honestly, had to worry about mechanical grip back then. The fact that it was two completely different corners. Any of the tracks that had a real history to me and were real challenging were tracks I really wanted to win at. Just because of the design and surface (at North Wilkesboro), it didn't matter if you had a good motor, none of that mattered.
"It was really about the pureness of what stock car racing was -- you had to get your car to handle, you had to get your driver to hang in there, your pit crew guys had to be good. It wasn't about all the latest and greatest technology; it was about pure racing."
The first race NASCAR race at North Wilkesboro came in 1949 -- and it was on dirt.
Through the years
North Wilkesboro Speedway was the site of so much throughout its four-plus decades as a part of NASCAR's annual schedule. Close finishes and close calls; rivalries renewed and rivalries begun; and at least one finish that's memorable because it wasn't close at all.
Just a few that stand out:
• The spring race of 1955, the Wilkes County 160, saw Buck Baker edge Dick Rathmann for the win. The margin of victory, officially 3 feet, was the closest winning margin in the seven-year history of the series.
• Two years later, in the spring of 1957, Fireball Roberts won the 100-mile race without making a single pit stop. The big news, though, was that this was the last race on dirt at North Wilkesboro.
• Lee Petty's first North Wilkesboro win came in 1959. And it was his only victory with the Petty Enterprises' No. 43, a number later made somewhat famous by his son, Richard.
• The win for Junior Johnson in October of 1965 was the hometown favorite's 50th and final as a driver. In all, Johnson won four times at North Wilkesboro. His teams went on to earn 15 more victories with the Ingle Hollow, North Carolina, native as an owner.
• On Oct. 1, 1967, Richard Petty won the Wilkes 400 for his 10th consecutive victory and his 27th on the season. Both records remain unmatched.
• Another Petty item -- this one involving Bobby Allison, who was one of the King's biggest rivals back in the day -- took place in '72.
"There wasn't a winner's circle; you just stopped on the race track," Petty's championship winning crew chief Dale Inman recalled. "I guess Richard and Bobby, the last five or six laps got to bumping each other; got to bumping each other pretty hard.
"We just stopped on the race track and that was the winner's circle. Richard got out of the car and handed Maurice (Petty, Richard's brother and the team's engine builder) his helmet and somebody came up and put their hands on Richard. Maurice hit him right in the face with the helmet.
"When Maurice hit him, he staggered over and I caught him. He said, 'What'd he hit me for?' I said, 'Hell, I don't know.' "
• In 1989, Goodyear officials successfully debuted the company's radial race tire in a race won by Dale Earnhardt.
Earnhardt won five times at North Wilkesboro and finished second on six occasions. It was a rare race that didn't see the "Intimidator" in contention, much as Waltrip and Petty had been dominant earlier.
RELATED: How end of "tire war" started at track
Dale Earnhardt won five times at North Wilkesboro, including the 1989 race that ushered in the ending of the "tire war."
Earnhardt passed us so often one time there we thought there were two of 'em on the track," said Wood Brothers Racing co-owner Eddie Wood.
• The Tyson Holly Farms 400 in 1994 featured only one driver on the lead lap at the finish -- race winner Geoffrey Bodine. It was the last premier series event in which the winner lapped the entire field.
• Terry Labonte tied Richard Petty's consecutive starts record at North Wilkesboro; Ernie Irvan returned to competition at the track after being critically injured 14 months earlier; Harry Gant's streak of four consecutive wins in the month of September came to an end at North Wilkesboro.
So much happened at such a tiny facility. But that was what made the track so enjoyable and so memorable.
'Just an awesome race track'
Former NBA all-star Brad Daugherty became a race fan in part because of the numerous treks with family to watch the NASCAR races at North Wilkesboro. Today he remains involved in college basketball and the NBA as an analyst for ESPN.
He's also involved in NASCAR -- he's the Daugherty in the JTG Daugherty Racing team that fields the No. 47 Sprint Cup team with driver AJ Allmendinger.
"I used to go there a lot … I mean we went every year," Daugherty said. "We'd go watch that Holly Farms race every year. Just awesome.
"Actually that's where I got to know Junior Johnson really well as a young fella. Me and my dad and my uncle, I've got to give my uncle all the credit, we used to go to North Wilkesboro and Bristol a lot. But he loved going to North Wilkesboro and I did, too. It was great. We'd spend all day, driving over from Asheville, winding our way up through there and getting to the race track.
"I remember getting there and seeing all the cars -- the Tide car, the Levi Garrett car, the Skoal car. It was just a wonderful race track and I was just so disappointed that it went away. It was just an awesome race track."
Childress, an owner/driver for just over a decade before turning his attention solely to ownership, called the track "one of my favorites."
"That and Martinsville were my two home tracks," the Winston-Salem, North Carolina, native said. "I had some good runs and good finishes there. The fans, how they got into it, was just amazing. Those fans were true to Junior Johnson. It was just quite a deal to go back up there and race.
"I can remember back when I ran there; I remember spinning out one time, it had just rained and the track was wet. Enoch Staley owned the track … I never will forget. I spun out, went across the grass back there on the back side of the track and tore down one of his fences.
"He came over there raising hell about me tearing down his fence; he didn't care anything about the fact that I had my old car torn all to pieces. But that's just the way he was."
Jeff Gordon went down in history as the final winner at North Wilkesboro Speedway in 1996.
One last hurrah
The weekend of Sept. 27-29, 1996, was the final NASCAR race weekend at North Wilkesboro. Two races were held -- the Lowe's 250 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race on Saturday followed by Sunday's Tyson Holly Farms 400.
The Truck Series race was stop No. 20 of 24 for the season and it was just the second time the series visited the legendary facility.
Sunday's premier series race was No. 27 of 31 for the 1996 season. It was the last season in which the schedule consisted of 31 races. The following year at the request of the track's new owners, the spring date at North Wilkesboro was moved to Texas Motor Speedway while the fall date went in as the second of two dates at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
Friday, Sept. 27: Following a 3 p.m. ET start, rain interrupted first-round qualifying with 13 of 40 drivers still waiting to get on track. Bobby Hamilton, driving the popular No. 43 Pontiac fielded by Petty Enterprises, was fastest before the delay.
After a 2 1/2-hour wait, Gordon was first out on the track, and the defending series champion quickly put his Chevrolet on top with a lap of 117.937 mph. The run held until Ted Musgrave, driving the No. 16 Family Channel/Primestar Ford Thunderbird for car owner Jack Roush, won the pole with a lap of 118.054 mph. It was Musgrave's first pole of the season and the fifth and final No. 1 starting spot of his career.
Hamilton wound up third, with Mark Martin and Irvan completing the top five.
In the Truck Series, all but five drivers had made qualifying attempts when rain returned and darkness forced officials to postpone the remainder of the program until Saturday. Rookie Johnny Benson had the fastest lap when qualifying was stopped. Rain was in the Saturday forecast and had it continued, leaving officials to set the lineup by the rule book, Benson would have failed to qualify as he had only two previous starts that season.
Saturday, Sept. 28: Second-round qualifying was still in place for the Cup Series, allowing drivers to stand on their first-round times or make a second attempt. Only the top 25 locked in times from first round the previous day. The practice was done away with following the 2000 season, with only one round used to determine the lineup.
Six drivers made second-round attempts, with Hut Stricklin fastest and Dale Jarrett also improving on his first day's effort. Provisionals went to Bodine, Lake Speed, Robert Pressley, Jeff Green and Darrell Waltrip (past champion's provisional).
Ward Burton, Dick Trickle and Gary Bradberry failed to qualify.
Rain following the Truck Series race cut short final practice for Cup teams. Gordon completed just 15 laps when his car developed engine problems, later traced to debris in the carburetor.
In the Truck Series race later that day, Mark Martin won in just his second start in the series to become only the third driver at that time to win at least one race in all three of NASCAR's national tours.
For posterity, the entire field posed for a picture prior to the last race at the fabled .625-mile track.
Sunday, Sept. 29: More than 40,000 fans were on hand to witness the final premier series race at North Wilkesboro. Many carried signs with, "We'll miss you North Wilkesboro," "Farewell Old Friend" or similar messages.
Television coverage was provided by ESPN Speedworld; it was the 30th premier series race broadcast from the track by the network, which had begun airing races from Wilkesboro in 1982.
The race featured eight different leaders, but it was Gordon who had the dominant car. He led at halfway, collecting a $10,000 bonus, and moved past Earnhardt after a restart with 79 laps remaining to grab the lead for the final time.
When the checkered flag appeared, it was Gordon across the stripe first, with Earnhardt, Jarrett, Jeff Burton and Labonte rounding out the top five.
Evernham said the win was special because "we knew it was going to be the last race there."
"For a little bit of time there the short tracks had almost been our Achilles' heel and we got a handle on it," he said. "And that's the year we won 10 races, so we were pretty proud of that accomplishment; I was really proud of that even though we had won the championship in '95. I felt like we were becoming one of the dominant teams.
"When you could beat guys like (Dale) Earnhardt, Junior Johnson's cars and those people at North Wilkesboro, you deserved to be there."
In addition to being his 10th win of the season, it was also Gordon's third in a row, coming on the heels of victories at Dover and Martinsville.
"We were on a pretty good roll that year," Gordon said. "Winning wasn't outside of the realm but at the same time, knowing it was the last race there … now looking back on it, it's extremely special to me because it was the last race and because it was such a tough, challenging race track.
"To be good on the short tracks meant a lot back then."
Bill Brodrick, known as the Hat Man, was waiting in Victory Lane, situated on top of a building in the infield. So, too, was team owner Rick Hendrick and the rest of Gordon's crew.
Several hours later, the gates swung shut at North Wilkesboro Speedway. The fans had departed. And this time, NASCAR had, too.
MORE: Classic Dale Jr. story: Angry dad, purple gas jug.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. didn't begin his career in NASCAR's premier series until 1999, three years after the series had moved on from North Wilkesboro Speedway.
But Earnhardt Jr., a student of NASCAR history, did compete at the .625-mile track, racing a Late Model entry on at least a couple of occasions.
"I ran the Sun Drop (sponsored) car there," Earnhardt Jr. recalled. "Actually, I think we went there twice. With the Sun Drop car I remember qualifying 19th or something; I don't remember how many cars were there but I'm sure they sent a few home so it was cool to make the race."
The contentment was short-lived. According to Earnhardt, he "T-boned a guy and had to run the rest of the race with no fenders or hood or anything. So it wasn't a whole lot of fun."
The following year, all three Earnhardt siblings -- Earnhardt Jr., older brother Kerry and older sister Kelley -- made the trek to the legendary track to compete in the Late Model race.
None of the three managed to qualify, a situation that didn't sit well with their father and team owner, Dale Earnhardt.
"Dad had assumed that I would make the race because we'd been running so good at Myrtle Beach," Earnhardt Jr. said. "He said, 'You guys run this race' and there was a race at Myrtle Beach that night; he was going to fly us in his King Air to the beach so we could compete that night and stay in the track points (battle)."
But when Dale Jr. failed to make the show, "He told me and my guys to screw off, that we had to drive the damn van all the way from North Wilkesboro to Myrtle Beach to try to make the race.
"We had to hustle; we barely made it. He was pissed off that all three cars missed the race."
MORE: How end of "tire war" started at track
Failing to qualify and having to drive all day to that night's race wasn't the only issue. An incident with "questionable" fuel also took place, but Earnhardt Jr. laughs when he recounts the incident today.
"I had a jug of trick fuel for my car," he said. "It was a purple gas jug. We kept it in that purple gas jug so we wouldn't mix it up with the other fuel. It was probably Elf fuel or something just to give my car a little more speed. Or it might have had some propylene oxide in there or something.
"One of Kerry or Kelley's guys walked over to get some gas for their car and grabbed the purple jug and a fight ensued between their crew and my crew; it sort of let the cat out of the bag that whatever was in that jug was pretty special. That was kind of comical."
Something to laugh about, no doubt, on the long drive from the hills of North Wilkesboro to the sands of Myrtle Beach.
In the late 1980s, NASCAR's twofold quest for speed and success took a sharp turn as tire supplier Goodyear introduced the radial tire to the sanctioning body's premier series.
Bias-ply tires had been the standard for stock car competition from the very beginning. But radial tire technology had vastly improved, and major open-wheel series had already made the swap to radials. Off the track, radials had also begun replacing bias-ply as the tires of choice for passenger vehicles.
But the bias-ply tires still used in NASCAR provided teams with another tool in the toolbox, a way to "tune" the car's setup through the use of air pressures and tire stagger (the variation in the circumference of the car's tires), something radial tire technology couldn't duplicate at the time.
Goodyear officials were working toward implementing radials in NASCAR when the company got an unexpected push from Hoosier Tire Company in 1988.
The competition between the two was fierce, and not without consequences. "Softer" tires produced by both brands generated higher speeds, but durability faltered. The "fall-off" in the product led to numerous tire failures and hard crashes.
The following year, Goodyear officials rolled out radial race tires in an effort to provide both speed and durability. It was an ongoing project -- problems before the season-opening Daytona 500 forced the company to withdraw its product for that event.
It wasn't until the spring race of 1989 at North Wilkesboro that Goodyear debuted the radial tire that officials felt was far more durable and could provide the necessary consistency and speed.
"We were going to step through it," said Greg Stucker, head of race tire sales for Goodyear. "We were going to introduce them at the short tracks and then slowly step into the other race tracks."
Rusty Wallace, driving for team owner Raymond Beadle, won the pole after the Blue Max team made the switch to Hoosiers.
"We knew the Hoosiers were quick," Stucker said. "We also knew that the radials were extremely good over the long run. We went the first 100-some odd laps under green, which you don't do at North Wilkesboro very often. And Rusty got lapped, I think, about Lap 70."
Dale Earnhardt won the race, thanks in part to the Richard Childress team's use of the Goodyear radials.
"I still have that car," Childress said. "That's one of my favorite cars I have on display because I didn't re-do the body on it. I made the rest of them look real nice, but that car is still beat up; it has the Dale Earnhardt look still left on it. All the fenders beat in, the sides, and a set of the very first radial tires.
"That's why we kept that one. It was the first win anybody had on radial tires. And everybody said 'That's going to be the end of Dale Earnhardt; he won't be able to run on them radial tires.' Well, we went out there and won the first race on them."
The tire war eventually ended – Hoosier pulled out of the sport in mid-1989, returned for the ’94 season with its own radial tire, but departed at year's end due to a lack of sales.
"It couldn't have worked out better for us to demonstrate how strong and how consistent the radial was," Stucker said. "The race really played into our hands pretty well. I think it was a good demonstration to everybody that this was a good package.
"You know they say you have good days and bad days in racing? That was definitely one of the best days I've had at the race track. It was a good one."
RELATED: Latest updates, timeline of Dale Jr.'s recovery
BRISTOL, Tenn. -- The first time he met Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Gordon never imagined that he would one day drive in relief for his Hendrick Motorsports teammate.
Yet here Saturday night, Gordon will do just that, suiting up for the fourth consecutive race to drive the organization's No. 88 Chevrolet in place of Earnhardt in the Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway (8 p.m. ET, NBCSN, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Earnhardt has been sidelined since mid-July due to concussion-like symptoms and the timing of his return has yet to be determined.
Their first meeting came in the mid 1990s at North Wilkesboro Speedway when Gordon and Dale Earnhardt, Earnhardt Jr.'s father, were at the top of their game. The elder Earnhardt was already a legendary figure in the sport; Gordon was on his way to becoming one.
The cheering and jeering of the Earnhardt and Gordon fans was a weekly occurrence at tracks across the country. That the two would go on to become both friends and business associates seemed unfathomable to those in the grandstands.
"I remember sitting there on pit road and Dale Sr. and he came walking by … it was the first time I ever met (Junior)," Gordon told NASCAR.com recently. "They were getting ready to qualify; I don't remember if he was driving a Late Model maybe … I don't exactly remember but I knew he'd been doing some racing and was building some momentum.
"I remember that he was very respectful. It was cool to meet him and then shortly after that see him rise as quick as he did."
Gordon "retired" from competition at the end of 2015, with four series titles and 93 career victories. The last time he visited Bristol, he was working in the television booth, just two months into his new role as a FOX NASCAR analyst.
RELATED: Remembering some of the top moments at Bristol
Now, he's back behind the wheel at a track where he notched five wins and five of 81 career poles.
Hendrick officials announced July 14 that doctors had not cleared Earnhardt Jr. to compete the following weekend at New Hampshire. Alex Bowman stepped in and finished 26th in his only start with the team.
Gordon took over the driving duties for races at Indianapolis (13th), Pocono (27th) and most recently Watkins Glen (14th).
Getting back in the car, and the No. 88 in particular, was an unusual feeling for Gordon although the 45-year-old certainly garnered his share of the spotlight throughout his career.
"I knew it was a big story," he said of the return, "but still until you’re living it and the reality of it is there, you don't know how your heart's going to beat, how your hands are going to sweat. That first time on track at Indy, I was sweating. And not just because of the heat.
"It would be different if I had been out for one week or two weeks. But I'd been out for eight months. I hadn't really driven this package. There's added pressure because of the situation, it being Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s car. To me the pressure was more about the performance."
Earnhardt, who also missed two races in 2012 after suffering a concussion, is a two-time champion in NASCAR’s XFINITY Series and has 26 Sprint Cup victories. His absence from competition has seen him fall from 13th to 21st in the points standings.
His move to the XFINITY Series (then Busch Grand National) is one Gordon hasn't forgotten either. Earnhardt made one start in the series '96 and eight in '97 before going full-time the following season.
"I went to see Dale Sr. about some business and he said 'Hey come check out Dale Jr.'s car for Watkins Glen," Gordon said. "… I looked at the car and remember it wasn't fancy, wasn't some super premium piece of equipment. The shifter on it was so long. Total old school. At that point we had been making really nice transmissions, road course cars, short shifters and all those things."
Gordon said he took the opportunity for a bit of friendly ribbing.
"I gave Senior a hard time," he said. "I was like 'What's this? You're going to make him go to Watkins Glen in this? That shifter is just wrong. This car is not at all what he deserves.'"
Earnhardt wasn't swayed by the comments, according to Gordon.
"He goes, 'Oh no. I'm going to make him work for it. He's not going to have it easy; he's going to work on it himself. I'm not going give him the best equipment. He's not going to learn anything being in the best equipment. He's going to have to drive some mediocre equipment so he can learn.'
SPEEDWAY, Ind. -- Jeff Gordon was all smiles walking on Indianapolis Motor Speedway's pit road following qualifying for Sunday's Brickyard 400. The crowd cheered its approval of his 21st-place qualifying effort. Mostly they were happy for the opportunity to see the four-time NASCAR champion at work again.
Gordon advanced to the second round of qualifying driving Dale Earnhardt Jr. 's No. 88 Axalta Chevrolet. And the five-time Indy winner will start his final race here from the 11th row filling in for Earnhardt, who is recovering from concussion-like symptoms.
"I felt really comfortable right there," said Gordon, 44, who was asked by team owner Rick Hendrick to come out of retirement and take the wheel for Earnhardt at Indy and at Pocono Raceway next week.
"I feel like today I am much calmer than I was yesterday," Gordon said. "Usually my heart's beating more for qualifying than for practice, but that wasn't the case today.
"So today, I feel more relaxed and comfortable in the car and I hope to feel the same way tomorrow. Tomorrow's challenge is going to be being around traffic and trying to get the balance of the car right and do that when you're by yourself as well as around other cars."
Gordon hasn't driven a Sprint Cup Series car since retiring at the end of the 2015 season and only had a pair of practice sessions Friday to prepare for qualifying and the race.
The team used his old seat and steering wheel in the car and Gordon only arrived from a family vacation in France mid-week.
"For the most part, all the work is done," Gordon said. "We did our practice yesterday, we did our de-brief with drivers and crew chiefs last night and we qualified today.
"Every time we're on track we're gathering information and learning. We'll continue to talk about it, but that's about all we can do moving forward. Those guys will be working hard on pit strategy for the race. But for the most part, the work is done for me other than thinking of some things I could tell Greg.
"The work all begins when the green flag drops."
While this will be the first time in Gordon's celebrated career he won't be steering the No. 24 Chevrolet for Hendrick, there was an unmistakable sense of excitement about the weekend's opportunity.
In what was originally his final Indy start -- last year -- Gordon scored his worst-ever finish of 42nd. In a sense, this time filling in for his good friend and former teammate Earnhardt also affords him the chance to improve that career note, too.
"My expectations are very realistic," Gordon said. "I'm approaching this the same way I've approached any race I've ever been in. I drive the car into the corner and the car gives me feedback and if it feels good, I drive it harder. If it doesn't feel good I find a way to manage it until we can make adjustments.
"My goal is to make the car go as fast as it can go. Each time on track I feel like I'm getting better. This is a steep learning curve, to be off the track this long and then just jump in here. But luckily, I have a great race car and a great race team that's going to help me get through it."
LOUDON, N.H. -- After one of the roughest stretches in his career, Jimmie Johnson got a welcome boost on Friday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
Saving his fastest lap for the third and final round of knockout qualifying, Johnson won the Coors Light Pole Award for Sunday's New Hampshire 301 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race (1:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN), covering the 1.058-mile distance in 28.430 seconds (133.971 mph).
The pole was the 50th won in a Chevrolet SS in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.
Johnson edged Kyle Busch (133.830 mph) for the top starting spot by .030 seconds, earning his first pole at the Magic Mile, his first of the 2016 season and the 35th of his career.
Busch, however, owned the fastest lap of the day, running 134.080 mph (28.407 seconds) to pace the second round, but Johnson was quickest when it counted most.
With only one top 10 in his last nine races, Johnson needed a catalyst, but his car was so off-kilter during a mock qualifying run during opening practice that he thought something had broken on the No. 48 Chevrolet.
While his team reset the car to the specifications in place when it unloaded, Johnson went on a 32-mile bike ride with fellow driver Matt Kenseth to clear his head.
When he returned for time trials, the car was better.
"We had a really weird set of tires or something odd go on on our mock run at the end of practice," Johnson said. "It felt like something was broken on the car. So to come back and have good speed in the car and advance, I knew after round two we would have a shot at the pole, because we were able to keep our lap count down and advance to the next round on our first lap in each session.
"And then put together a smooth lap. I felt like it could have been faster, but certainly a good smooth one, and it was enough."
And having speed in the car was a shot of adrenaline to a team that has been struggling.
"We've had a lot of tough races," Johnson acknowledged. "Qualifying has been so-so. I'm not the best at qualifying. I think the majority of that emotion was the fact that we actually got a pole.
"We don't have many. It's not our strong suit. Just a good day all-in-all, and certainly something this Lowe's team needed after the tough couple of months… Today's a big day for us."
Martin Truex Jr. will start third, after bumping his way into the final 12 .001 seconds over fellow Toyota driver Carl Edwards in the closing seconds of the 10-minute second round. Truex covered the distance in 28.675 seconds (132.827 mph) to knock Edwards out of the final round.
Truex then secured the third position on the grid with a lap at 133.371 mph.
"It's been a hectic day," Truex said. "It seems like we've been thrashing all day long. Everything is last-minute, last-second and just throwing stuff at it, but when it counts we keep hitting it.
"We were first in practice and third here. We barely made it through the second round and then went on to finish third. All in all, it was a good day. Just a lot of quick decisions by everyone."
Kurt Busch will start fourth, followed by Denny Hamlin and Joey Logano , who led the first round of time trials at 133.166 mph.
Chase Elliott , Kevin Harvick , Brad Keselowski and AJ Allmendinger claimed the seventh through 10th starting spots, respectively.
Substituting for Dale Earnhardt Jr. , who is sidelined with concussion-like symptoms, Alex Bowman earned the 20th starting position in the No. 88 Chevrolet. Though Earnhardt wasn't at New Hampshire, he nevertheless contributed to Johnson's pole-winning run.
"He did come here and test for us," said Johnson, who is driving a new chassis this week. "And he gave us the foundation for the way our cars unloaded today. So big thanks to the 88 team, Dale and (crew chief) Greg (Ives) and those guys for having a great test session and giving us an opportunity for the pole today."
CONCORD, N.C. -- This week, Dale Earnhardt Jr. has been busy.
First came a chance to take part in a Goodyear tire test at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, where the driver said the No. 88 team got "good information."
He then helped introduce the Dale Jr. No. 88 Special Edition Chevy Silverado.
Next up before heading to Pocono Raceway for this weekend's festivities was a chance to travel to Ohio for a special Nationwide event.
Earnhardt got a chance to mingle with fellow Nationwide team member Peyton Manning, play-by-play announcer Mike Tirico and wildlife advocate Jack Hanna at the event.
The event helped lead up to the PGA Tour's Memorial Tournament, which is presented by Nationwide.
On what would have been Dale Earnhardt’s 65th birthday, fans are being invited to Dale Earnhardt Inc. today in Mooresville, North Carolina, to celebrate the annual Dale Earnhardt Day.
Items from Earnhardt’s past and that of DEI will be on display, and the Grand Showroom also will be open to the public in honor of the seven-time NASCAR champion who died on the last lap of the 2001 Daytona 500. This year’s celebration includes the first public viewing of a life-sized statute of Dale Earnhardt by artist Jason Fizer of Roanoke, Virginia.
The Dale Earnhardt Foundation will be accepting good used or new books to benefit the Salvation Army’s Center of Hope in Charlotte, North Carolina.
On Earnhardt’s birthday, here are some memorable moments to recall in Hall of Famer’s driving career:
Earnhardt’s 76th and final Cup win came in the 2000 fall race at Talladega Superspeedway. He went from 18th to first in the last five laps to win:
Here is Earnhardt’s interview after winning the 1998 Daytona 500:
Earnhardt collected his record-tying seventh series championship by winning the title at North Carolina Speedway in Rockingham, North Carolina, in 1994.
Here is the dramatic finish in the 1999 Bristol night race where Earnhardt made contact with Terry Labonte on the final lap, meaning only to “rattle his cage.”
The world was sent into a tailspin Tuesday. Friendships were broken, and wars started. All over an unorthodox sandwich Dale Earnhardt Jr. made and then actually ate.
The Internet and taste buds will never be the same.
Meanwhile, JR Motorsports had some real news that got lost in the commotion. The team showed off the car Earnhardt will be driving this weekend in the Xfinity Series race at Texas Motor Speedway.
Earnhardt will be driving a very purple No. 88 Chevrolet sponsored by Goody’s Powder Mixed Fruit Blast in the O’Reilly Auto Parts 300.
“Our (JR Motorsports) cars tend to run very well at Texas,” Earnhardt said in a team release. “The last few years, we’ve run up front and been in the top five. I expect to show up with a strong car this time as well. Dave (Elenz) and the guys have been bringing fast cars to the track every week, so as a driver, that’s all you can ask for.”
Friday’s race is one of two Xfinity Series events currently scheduled for Earnhardt, who will return to JR Motorsports’ “All-Star” car April 23 at Richmond International Raceway.
Texas Motor Speedway was the site of Earnhardt’s first wins in both the Xfinity and Sprint Cup Series. His Sprint Cup win in 2000 was his last victory at the 1.5-mile track.
Earnhardt’s last Xfinity Series win came in 2010 at Daytona International Speedway. He since has competed in 19 races.
