CONCORD, N.C. -- It was a sleepless night for Dale Earnhardt Jr. last week prior to the driver's test session at Darlington Raceway that ultimately led to his being medically cleared for NASCAR competition, beginning in 2017.
Earlier this month, Earnhardt and the No. 88 team headed south to Darlington Raceway to participate in a test, giving the driver the chance to strap in for the first time since being sidelined with a concussion in July.
And Earnhardt couldn't have been happier with the way the test went.
"Darlington was a great host and NASCAR was really great to work with to put it together," Earnhardt said. "I really appreciate them creating opportunities and rules for drivers in this type of situation to be able to get in a car. It really helps build your confidence to know that everything is working like it’s supposed to work, no matter what your injury is before you go get back into a full race weekend."
With his team and Charlotte neurosurgeon Dr. Jerry Petty on hand, Earnhardt spent nearly five hours logging laps at the South Carolina track.
Before climbing in the car, Petty performed a personal evaluation of Earnhardt, setting a baseline to compare to following each run.
"I have nerves and butterflies every time I get in a race car," Earnhardt said, "but I was certainly very anxious to get in the car. As soon as I got my feet on the ground in Darlington, I was in my suit and over there by the door wondering if the car was ready to go. I couldn’t wait to get in there and just go ahead and get out there and see what it felt like and see what I felt like."
Earnhardt took the Chevrolet SS out for 15-lap runs before bringing it back to the garage for a 20-minute break, each of which included another assessment of Earnhardt's condition.
"A lot of the things that he was checking -- visual and balance and so forth -- actually strengthened throughout the process," Earnhardt explained. "You sort of get acclimated and up to speed with what it takes to drive a race car and those systems strengthen through that process. Rather than see them sort of flat-line and stay the same -- which was what I was hoping for -- they actually got stronger. That was great."
The 14-time Most Popular Driver Award-winner said as soon as he began logging laps, it all came right back to him and he felt very comfortable in the car.
"At Darlington you run right on the fence and you don’t have a lot of room for error," Earnhardt said. "That was a good challenge. Of all the tracks we could have gone to Darlington was a good choice to really put me through the test physically and mentally to understand where we are at. I was a little bit nervous about that. Darlington is a tough track, but the nerves were gone after about four laps and then it was let’s just run; let’s run some more, put some tires on and go some more.”
Following the test, Earnhardt's doctors medically cleared him to compete, his return debut set for the 2017 Daytona 500 on Feb. 26.
"I felt like throughout the day I got more and more comfortable in the car and it felt like an old shoe by the end of the day," Earnhardt said. "We felt really confident that health-wise I was 100 percent and ready to get back in the car.”