KRAFT'S KORNER: HOW STARS FARE THE SECOND TIME AROUND

RELATED: Should you start Gordon in fantasy?

When Jeff Gordon gets behind the wheel of the No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet this weekend at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, it will mark his first start since the 2015 season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway, which at the time was believed to be his final NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race.

However, recent circumstances and events have changed that. With concussion-like symptoms keeping Dale Earnhardt Jr. out of the car, Gordon will return for at least the next two races at Indianapolis (July 24) and Pocono (July 31). Seeing Gordon behind the wheel of the No. 88 -- not the No. 24 he made famous -- will undoubtedly feel a bit like watching Michael Jordan sport the No. 45 jersey instead of his legendary No. 23 jersey when he initially returned to the NBA's Chicago Bulls in 1995.

Gordon's final full-time season in 2015 brought about much fanfare, many gifts from tracks and an unforgettable march to the Championship 4 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Ultimately, Gordon did not win the title but the journey was incredible -- that Martinsville victory truly something else -- and a heck of a way for the four-time champion to go out at the time.

Gordon is far from the first athlete to eventually return after retiring. Here's a look at a few others and how they fared in their returns, including one whose final chapter has yet to be fully written.

Michael Jordan
After leading the Bulls to a three-peat, Jordan retired before the start of the 1993-94 season and pursued a baseball career for a brief time. He would return to the Bulls in March of 1995. MJ would lead the Bulls to another three-peat, including the iconic image of nailing a game-winning shot in Game 6 of the 1998 NBA Finals against the Utah Jazz. Jordan again retired before returning for two seasons in 2001 with the Washington Wizards and retiring for good in 2003. The stint with the Wizards serving as a forgettable blemish on a magnificent career of a player considered, if not the greatest, one of the greatest of all-time.

Brett Favre
Favre was an icon with the Green Bay Packers setting numerous franchise records. After retiring in March of 2008, the quarterback began to have doubts about his retirement -- wanting to return to the Packers -- and eventually was dealt to the New York Jets about a month before the 2008 season began. The stint in New York was forgettable and he once again retired in February of 2009. That lasted until August of 2009 when Favre inked a deal with the Minnesota Vikings and helped to lead the team to the NFC Championship Game. He would retire for good after an injury-plagued 2010 season.

Roger Clemens
Clemens retired after the 2003 season, a season in which the New York Yankees reached the World Series but lost to the Florida Marlins in six games. However, that retirement was really short lived because by January of 2004, Clemens, who lived in Texas, inked a deal with the Houston Astros. He would pitch three seasons with the Astros and was a key piece of the 2005 team that reached the World Series (and was swept by the Chicago White Sox). In '06 with the Astros and '07 with the Yankees, Clemens would join the teams in the middle of the season. Clemens also had a short stint with the Sugar Land Skeeters of the Atlantic League in 2012.

Michael Phelps
Phelps, who holds the record for most gold medals in a single Olympic Games (2008 at Beijing, eight gold medals) had earned a record 18 gold medals over four Summer Olympic Games as a member of the U.S. Olympic Swim team. After retiring following the London games of 2012, Phelps announced in 2014 he was going back into training. The decorated swimmer could add to his gold medal count some more as he has qualified for three individual events at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio that will be held in August.

Today’s Xfinity race at Indianapolis: start time, weather, TV/radio info and lineup

Today’s Lilly Diabetes 250 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway features the final Xfinity Dash 4 Cash event of the season. That means heat races. Each heat race will be 20 laps, followed by the main event, which will be 60 laps.

Here’s all the info you need for today’s race.

(All times are Eastern)

START: Rudy Juarez, a Lilly Diabetes guest, will give the command 15 minutes after the second heat race ends. The green flag will wave eight minutes after the command.

DISTANCE: The race is scheduled for 60 laps (150 miles) around the 2.5-mile speedway.

HEAT RACES: The first heat race is scheduled to take the green flag at 3:45 p.m. The second heat race is scheduled to take the green flag 23 minutes after the completion of the first heat race. Both heat races are 20 laps (50 miles) around the 2.5-mile speedway.

PRERACE SCHEDULE: The Xfinity garage opens at 7 a.m. The driver/crew chief meeting is at 1:20 p.m. Driver introductions are at 3 p.m.

NATIONAL ANTHEM: Country music artist Amanda Jo will perform the anthem at 3:31 p.m.

TV/RADIO: NBCSN will broadcast the race with its coverage beginning at 3 p.m. with Countdown to Green. Performance Racing Network’s radio broadcast begins at 8 p.m. and also can be heard at goprn.com. SiriusXM NASCAR Radio will have PRN’s broadcast.

FORECAST: The wunderground.com site predicts a temperature of 90 degrees at race time with a 6 percent chance of thunderstorms.

LAST TIME: Kyle Busch passed Ryan Blaney on the last lap when Blaney was slowed by a lapped car. Blaney finished second with Daniel Suarez third, Paul Menard fourth and Elliott Sadler fifth.

STARTING LINEUP: Qualifying at 11:40 a.m.

On the spot: Drivers need twice the help from above with navigating the Brickyard

From atop the iconic pagoda at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Rutledge Wood explains how teams need two spotters to help NASCAR drivers navigate the mammoth 2.5-mile track.

NASCAR to police pit road speeds with expanded timing zones for Xfinity race

NASCAR will employ additional timing zones on pit road for today’s NASCAR Xfinity race and if all goes well, those timing zones will be used in Sunday’s Brickyard 400, NASCAR confirmed to NBC Sports.

There will be 12 timing zones along pit road — up from six previously at Indianapolis Motor Speedway — for today’s Xfinity race. There will be a timing zone about every 3.5 pit stalls on average. Those are being added to limit drivers accelerating toward their pit stall and passing cars. That became a bigger issue after NASCAR penalized Martin Truex Jr. for passing Kevin Harvick on pit road during the Sprint Cup race at Kentucky Speedway earlier this month.

NASCAR experimented with the additional timing lines last weekend at New Hampshire and had no issues, leading to the use of the timing lines for today’s Xfinity race.

Here is the pit road chart with all the timing lines.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. returns to the Brickyard (in name only)

INDIANAPOLIS — He won’t be racing Sunday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, but Dale Earnhardt Jr.‘s name will carry on at the Brickyard.

After track workers removed a sign Friday afternoon (at the behest of Hendrick Motorsports) that listed Jeff Gordon as the replacement driver of the No. 88, Earnhardt’s name was above the team’s stall when the Sprint Cup garage opened at 8 a.m. ahead of Sprint Cup qualifying Saturday afternoon.

Gordon was 25th fastest Friday afternoon in the final Sprint Cup practice session but was fastest on his final lap and is optimistic about finding speed for qualifying.

“It was one of the most challenging days I’ve had in a race car to try to get comfortable, be consistent, have the speed and give good feedback,” he said Friday. “I still love this track, and I’m glad that we are doing this (At Indy) because I think that helps me have the confidence to be able to learn faster, but it’s tough. It was tough.  That first run I was like ‘wow’ I forgot how hard of work this is.”

JOHNSON JUMPS ATOP FIRST INDY PRACTICE

Jimmie Johnson soared to the top of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series leaderboard Friday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in an opening practice that featured the return of Jeff Gordon to competition.

Johnson pushed the Hendrick Motorsports No. 48 Chevrolet to a best lap of 184.185 mph around the 2.5-mile track. He'll seek his fifth Indianapolis win in Sunday's Crown Royal Presents The Combat Wounded Coalition 400 at the Brickyard (3 p.m. ET, NBCSN, IMS, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Former Indy pole winner Denny Hamlin was second-fastest in the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 11 Toyota at 182.563 mph, a sizable .434 seconds off Johnson's pace. Casey Mears (180.346 mph), Kevin Harvick (179.845 mph) and Ryan Newman (179.784 mph) completed the top five in the 85-minute opening session.

Gordon clocked the ninth-fastest speed, landing a 179.376 mph lap in the Hendrick Motorsports No. 88 Chevrolet. He's scheduled to make his first Sprint Cup start of the season Sunday as a replacement for Dale Earnhardt Jr. as he recovers from concussion-like symptoms.

Tony Stewart , scheduled to make his final Brickyard start in what's to be his last full-time season, was eighth-fastest at 179.655 mph in the Stewart-Haas Racing No. 14 Chevrolet. The native Hoosier will be vying for his third Brickyard victory in Sunday's 400-miler.

Defending Sprint Cup champion Kyle Busch, also the defending race winner, was 12th-fastest but recovered from a spin at the one-hour mark of the session. Busch's Joe Gibbs Racing No. 18 Toyota made a prolonged slide out of Turn 2 after making contact with the Go FAS Racing No. 32 Ford of Patrick Carpentier.

Carpentier, 44, walked over to Busch's garage stall later in the session to issue an apology for crowding his pass attempt. Carpentier was 39th-fastest of the 41 drivers entered during first practice.

Final Sprint Cup practice is scheduled for tonight from 4-5:25 p.m. ET. Coors Light Pole Qualifying is set for Saturday at 1:45 p.m. ET. Both sessions will be broadcast on NBCSN.

TRUEX GETS ANOTHER TEASE OF VICTORY AT NEW HAMPSHIRE

LOUDON, N.H. -- Martin Truex Jr. was counting the positives and trying to ignore the negatives when he climbed out of his Furniture Row Racing entry Sunday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

For the fourth time this season, the 36-year-old led more than 100 laps and he was out front with less than 40 laps remaining in the New Hampshire 301 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race.

The performance bodes well for the series' fall return, when the track hosts the second race in this year's Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.

But a broken shifter left him with a lame No. 78 Toyota down the stretch. Visions of victory were replaced with thoughts of merely making it to the end.

He did, finishing 16th, despite numerous late restarts that left him perfect for the picking.

"It's not tough, it's just that you're a sitting duck and there's nothing you can do to get going," Truex said. "Unfortunately we got passed by a lot of cars and we pitted for tires on that last stop because we were starting all the way in the back ... and we wanted to get some momentum going ... make sure we didn't destroy the race car getting in a wreck.

"We passed 10 cars in the last 10 laps so we had a good race car, just nothing to show for it today."

Toyotas were dominant on a mostly sunny day here at the 1.058-mile track, leading all but two of the 301 laps. And the Toyota of Truex was, for most of the day, as strong as any.

He led 83 consecutive laps early (from Lap 89-171) and 37 circuits a bit later (from Lap 221-257). His team was quick and efficient on pit road. Mistake-free.

"I think looking forward to the Chase and what we're trying to do with this team, this is a big relief to come here and be able to run well," said Truex, who won earlier this year with a dominant performance in the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte. "We knew this was one of our tough tracks and if we could come here and get through here good in September then we'll be set up to start pretty good in the Chase.

"All in all, couldn't be more proud of everybody at Furniture Row Racing and everybody on this Toyota. We weren't that good yesterday ... but the guys went to work last night and we had some good ideas, we talked about it and some things stuck out to Cole (Pearn, crew chief) and the guys and things that they thought we needed to work on just based on what I felt yesterday."

Truex led 141 laps earlier this year at Texas and 172 at Kansas, in addition to his Charlotte effort. All three tracks will host Chase races.

Sunday's result was credited to "total team effort," he said, "and the pit crew was great today, the best they've been all year by far.

"We're doing everything right, but we're taking some on the chin here, but this isn't when it counts so we'll just keep our heads up and keep working. Our race cars are fast and everyone is doing a great job. Sooner or later we'll get everything straight."