Dale Earnhardt Jr. will return to the Sprint Cup Series this weekend at Martinsville Speedway after being cleared by doctors after showing symptoms of a concussion.
Earnhardt will return to a Martinsville track where he finished third in the spring and has four straight finishes of seventh or better. Crew chief Steve Letarte wrote Monday on Twitter, "Back in Concord [N.C.] after a great day of testing with Dale Jr. Looks great and ran some awesome laps.''
Dr. Jerry Petty cleared Earnhardt after an evaluation at Petty's Charlotte office.
"Dale Jr. has done everything asked of him,'' Petty said in a team release. "He hasn't had a headache since Oct. 12 and we have not been able to provoke any symptoms since that time. I have informed NASCAR and Hendrick Motorsports that he is medically cleared for all NASCAR-related activity.''
Earnhardt was first parked Oct. 11 after headaches persisted following a last-lap crash at Talladega Superspeedway five days earlier. It was the second time in six weeks he had suffered symptoms of a concussion. The first was after an Aug. 29 test at Kansas.
Earnhardt's championship hopes were all but done after the Talladega wreck that dropped him to 11th in points, 51 behind leader Brad Keselowski. He now trails by 122.
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