Jeff Gordon will not drive No. 88 car for Dale Earnhardt Jr. at Michigan

Jeff Gordon says he will not drive the No. 88 car for Dale Earnhardt Jr. next weekend at Michigan International Speedway because of a prior commitment.

“I didn’t know I was going to be doing all of this,” Gordon said.

Gordon would not say what the commitment was but said he would only be at Michigan on race day. Hendrick Motorsports confirmed that Alex Bowman will drive the No. 88 car at Michigan if Earnhardt is unable to race. Bowman drove for Earnhardt last month at New Hampshire Motor Speedway and finished 26th.

Earnhardt has not said what his status for Michigan is. Thursday, Earnhardt posted a series of pictures and videos on his Instagram account showing some of the physical and mental exercises he is doing to aid his recovery.

Gordon said it’s simple why he’s not driving at Michigan.

“I can’t be there all weekend,” he said.

Asked if he could drive on race day only at Michigan, Gordon said: “It doesn’t make sense. I’ve not driven that (reduced downforce) package. I think it’s only fair, and I’m pretty sure that Alex Bowman would be in the car, it wouldn’t be fair to him, it wouldn’t be fair to this team. I’m not so sure I’m even the best choice for that package at that race anyway to get the most points for the car owner (standings). That’s my primary goal.”

The Sprint Cup Series will use the reduced downforce package at Michigan that was run there earlier this year and at Kentucky. That package is expected to be set for next season.

Gordon qualified 11th for Saturday night’s Sprint Cup race at Bristol Motor Speedway. This will be his fourth race filling in for Dale Earnhardt Jr., who has been out because of a concussion suffered in June at Michigan. The symptoms, though, did not show up until weeks later. Bristol will be the fifth race Earnhardt has missed. Gordon drove for him at Indianapolis (finished 13th), Pocono (27th), Watkins Glen (14th) and Bristol.

Watkins Glen marked Gordon’s 800th career Sprint Cup start.

Gordon said he would be available to run in the Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway if Earnhardt was still unable to be back in the car by the Sept. 4 race.

Preliminary Sprint Cup entry list for Michigan

Forty cars are entered for this weekend’s Pure Michigan 400 Sprint Cup race at Michigan International Speedway.

No driver is listed for the No. 88 car. Hendrick Motorsports tweeted Monday that an announcement on who will drive the car is not expected before Wednesday afternoon. The team has stated that if Dale Earnhardt Jr. is not cleared by doctors to race, Alex Bowman will drive the car this weekend.

Michael Annett is listed in the No. 46 car after missing last weekend’s race at Bristol Motor Speedway for what the team called flu-like symptoms. Justin Allgaier drove for Annett at Bristol.

Preliminary Xfinity entry list for Road America

Forty-one cars are entered for Saturday’s Road America 180 Fired Up by Johnsonville Xfinity race at Road America.

Michael McDowell is the only Sprint Cup driver doing double-duty between Michigan and Road America this weekend. Justin Marks, who won in the rain at Mid-Ohio two weeks ago, is entered. Team Penske will have Alex Tagliani in the No. 22 car.

TOP FIVE GIVES BRISTOL BOOST TO BUESCHER'S CHASE HOPES

BRISTOL, Tenn. – Chris Buescher took another important step toward earning a berth in this year's Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, garnering a hard-fought fifth-place finish in Sunday's rain-delayed Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway.

It was the second top-five finish of the season for the 23-year old driver of the No. 34 Ford for Front Row Motorsports, and came just three weeks after his first career win in the series.

That win, which came at Pocono Raceway, opened the door for a Chase berth but only if the 2015 XFINITY Series champion could make his way into the top 30 in points.

The finish at Bristol did just that, vaulting him past David Ragan and into 30th place. Teammate Landon Cassill sits 29th, 27 points ahead.

RELATED: How the Chase bubble looks post-Bristol

"I don't know exactly where we're at quite yet, but I know we had to get there," Buescher said on pit road after his top-five finish. "That's Chase eligibility in one race out of the four we had to do it. Now we have to hold onto it."

Sunday's event, the continuation of a race that started Saturday night but was interrupted after just 48 laps due to rain, was also impacted by weather, starting more than three hours late. Kevin Harvick, the 2014 series champion, won, with Ricky Stenhouse (Roush Fenway Racing), Denny Hamlin (Joe Gibbs Racing), Austin Dillon (Richard Childress Racing) and Buescher completing the top five.

The overnight delay didn't seem to impact the performance of Buescher and his team. After running inside the top 20 for most of the race, Buescher finally cracked the top 10 with 125 laps of the 500-lap race remaining. From there, he steadily worked his way into the top five.

"I'm really proud of this team," he said. "... We knew Bristol would be a good one for us. It took us a day later to do it, but we got ourselves a top-five and had a blast out here. That was an awesome run."

Buescher has only a brief history at Bristol in Sprint Cup competition, finishing 25th here in last year's spring race and 21st earlier this season. In the XFINITY Series, he posted three top 10s in five starts.

"I love Bristol. I absolutely love this race track."

With five laps to go, Buescher had closed on Dillon when his team told him, "You've got room; try him if you can." Another position would mean another point earned. Buescher said the risk of losing spots should he make a run at the RCR driver wasn't a concern.

"I wasn't planning on messing up if I got next to him," he said. "It was one of those things where we could catch him and then mess up a corner and get a little bit of gap, and then we got back to him there.

"I think the 19 (of Carl Edwards) and someone else was behind us, and they were within a couple car-lengths, so I didn't want to go to the bottom and give those two cars a chance to pass us and lose two points that easily."

With a precarious points position and three races remaining to determine the full 16-team Chase field, Buescher says the team's plan of attack won't be altered by what could go wrong in those races, either. It's what should go right that matters.

"We came to Bristol knowing that we had speed, that we love this race track, and it was a good chance for us to go out and have an awesome run," he said, "and that's exactly what we were able to do.

"Points will fall however they will. You can't focus on them too much because you lose sight of what the main goal is, and that's to go out and win races."

Preliminary Camping World Truck Series entry list for Michigan

Thirty-one trucks are on the entry list for Saturday’s Career for Veterans 200 Presented by The Cooper Standard Foundation & Brad Keselowski‘s Checkered Flag Foundation Camping World Truck Series race at Michigan International Speedway.

Reed Sorenson, who is entered in the Sprint Cup race at Michigan, is entered in this event also. Ben Kennedy enters this event after his first career series victory last week at Bristol Motor Speedway.

WATCH LIVE: NASCAR America at 6 p.m. ET: Kevin Harvick’s win, Kyle Busch’s frustration

NASCAR America is back after its Olympic break with a 90-minute show today, beginning at 6 p.m. ET on NBCSN.

Host Dave Briggs is joined by Dale Jarrett in our Stamford, Connecticut, studio. Jeff Burton and Steve Letarte join them from Burton’s garage.

On today’s show, the crew will examine these topics and more:

Following a rainy start on Saturday night, Kevin Harvick won at Bristol on Sunday night. Jarrett, Letarte and Burton will weigh in on the race and the rain that turned it into a marathon.
After his win, Harvick convinced teammate and owner Tony Stewart to join in for celebratory burnouts. We’ll hear from Stewart about that special moment, as well as his own reflections on Bristol after what was likely his final Sprint Cup start there.
Kyle Busch led a race-high 256 laps but his dominant day turned sour with a parts failure, followed by a spin and crash with Justin Allgaier. Busch had plenty to share with the media about the setback, and you’ll get to hear it all. We’ll also discuss the various on-track problems that have marred an otherwise strong season for the defending Sprint Cup champion.
Even with Mother Nature ensuring it would take nearly 24 hours to decide a winner at Bristol, the track received positive reviews after putting a substance on the bottom groove to make the racing more competitive. Will this become a new NASCAR standard? Nate Ryan chimes in on the new expectations Bristol set this past weekend with track transformations.If you’re not near a TV, you can watch online or on the NBC Sports app at the NASCAR stream on NBC Sports.
If you plan to stream the show on your laptop or portable device, be sure to have your username and password from your cable/satellite/telco provider handy so your subscription can be verified.

Once you enter that information, you’ll have access to the stream.

Click here at 6 p.m. ET to watch live via the stream.

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. dedicates runner-up finish at Bristol to Bryan Clauson

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. dedicated his second-place finish in Sunday’s Bass Pro Shops / NHRA Night Race at Bristol to the memory of his late friend, Bryan Clauson.

Stenhouse has been on an emotional roller coaster since Clauson’s Aug. 6 crash in a USAC Midget race at Belleville, Kansas. Clauson, 27, died the next day, and Stenhouse spent the NASCAR off week comforting Clauson’s family at the Knoxville Nationals in Iowa.

“It’s definitely been tough, but I think going to Knoxville and being with his family, being with his fiancée (Lauren) and being with friends that we all had a great time together, you know, talking about it, talking through things and talking about all the good things that Bryan did and his organ donation really helped a lot of us really feel comforted with what he was still doing after the fact,” Stenhouse said.

Clauson’s memorial service Thursday was “one of the toughest days that I think I had,” Stenhouse said. “But again, just being there and telling stories really I think helped us all get through it.  Lauren has been a rock getting everybody though. You would think it would be the other way around.  She’s really helped a lot of people.”

Lauren Stewart and her parents attended the race at Bristol.

“They came and just hung out all day on Saturday throughout the day around the motor home, and I was like, well, rain delays are good for some things,” Stenhouse said. “We all got to hang out together and spend some more time together, and that definitely has been helping us a lot the last couple weeks.”

In his interview above with NBC Sports, Stenhouse also talked about the significance of doing well and how he just didn’t have quite enough to catch race winner Kevin Harvick.

Stenhouse also talked about Clauson’s plan to compete in a total of 200 races – across a variety of racing platforms including sprint and midget cars, as well as having competed this year in the Indianapolis 500, earning a career-best finish.

“I know Bryan was watching and wanting us to win tonight, and we gave it all we had,” Stenhouse said. “He was trying to run 200 races. Somebody asked me, how do you feel coming to here and racing, and talking with Tim, Bryan’s dad, he was like, ‘Man, I feel like Bryan is probably mad at me right now because I’m not at home working on a midget to get it ready to go racing because Bryan, all he wanted to do was race.’  That’s what he was doing, and leading one of the biggest races of the year.

“If he had to choose a way to go out, I feel like that was the way he wanted.”