Dale Earnhardt Jr. gives peek at recovery process from concussion

It’s been 68 days since Dale Earnhardt Jr. made contact with Chris Buescher on Lap 63 of the Sprint Cup race at Michigan International Speedway while exiting Turn 2 and pancaked the outside wall, a relatively harmless looking accident.

Since, Earnhardt competed in three more races before sitting out four due to a concussion Earnhardt and his doctors believe stemmed from the June 12 race at Michigan.

While Jeff Gordon will make his fourth start in substitution for Earnhardt this weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway, no timetable has been given on when the 13-time most popular NASCAR driver will return to the track. In his Sprint Cup career, Earnhardt has missed six total races due to concussions.

In the meantime, Earnhardt has been transparent about how he is dealing with the concussion, from speaking on his Dale Jr. Download podcast, to holding a press conference at Watkins Glen International.

Now, Earnhardt has given the curious an inside look at his rehab process through social media. On Thursday, Earnhardt posted multiple pictures and videos to Instagram detailing some of the activities and tests he is undergoing regularly in order to help him prepare for his return to racing.

The activities range from doing basketball drills, to eye chart exercises and walking through a dark room lit by only disco ball-like lighting.

In each post, Earnhardt gives a brief explanation about the related exercise.

#ThrowbackThursday: Talladega, Kurt Busch racing in L.A. and more

Let’s start this week’s edition of #ThrowbackThursday with the most recent winner at Talladega Superspeedway, Joey Logano.

Last October, Logano completed a sweep of the second round of the Chase for the Sprint Cup when his front bumper narrowly edged Dale Earnhardt Jr.‘s when a late caution waved on a restart. Logano and Earnhardt split the season’s restrictor-plate races.

A year before he first raced in the Sprint Cup Series in 2000, Kurt Busch competed in the NASCAR Southwest Series. That circuit took Busch and his competitors to stops that included Irwindale Speedway, Sonoma Raceway, Rocky Mountain Raceways in Utah and the streets of Los Angeles.

Kurt Busch won six races that season, including four in a row, to claim the series’ title. In the picture below, shared by Busch, the Stewart-Haas Racing driver pilots his No. 70 Chevrolet in the Ford Los Angeles Street Race 200. The race was one of three run in the streets of the City of Angels.

Roush Yates Engines brings us this next picture, taken at the start of the 1986 Talladega 500. Bill Elliott started from the pole next to Dale Earnhardt. At this point, Earnhardt only had two of his record 10 Talladega wins. The third wouldn’t come until 1990.

Elliott swept the poles at Talladega that season in addition to his pole for the Daytona 500.

Only 14 cars would finish this race, with Earnhardt and Elliott not among them. The race would be won by Bobby Hillin, Jr. The only win of his Sprint Cup career, Hillin is one of 10 drivers to earn their first Sprint Cup win at Talladega.

And here’s a few more pictures to reminisce over.