Dale Earnhardt Jr. announces break from racing, Jeff Gordon steps in

But as he prepares for Sunday’s Crown Royal Presents The Combat Wounded Coalition 400 at the Brickyard, he has wants one thing – to win.

But for Team Penske, it’s been one of those races that has not played out in its favor over the years, even with current drivers Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski.

But even without one of NASCAR’s top drivers, IN fans will have two storied drivers to watch – Gordon’s comeback and what is supposed to be Tony Stewart’s grand finale on his home track. Harvick has finished with two top five’s and one top 10 in the three Lilly Diabetes 250 contests he has participated in at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

But the driver of the No. 4 Jimmy John’s Chevrolet SS for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) saw his career take a different path that led him to NASCAR instead of IndyCar. Unfortunately, this race has eluded the organization despite its hunger for success. “Indy is such a cool place for us and Indy is such a unique track to begin with, but the Dash 4 Cash is an added bonus for sure. I expect…he might be a little bit rusty, but we’ve got a lot of practice time and I don’t think it’ll take (him) long to get back in the groove”. Bam, just like that.

The four-time Cup champion, who is coming out of retirement to fill in for the injured Dale Earnhardt Jr. the next two races, kept the door open to running more if Earnhardt doesn’t return from concussion-like symptoms.

While Gordon will probably be behind the eight ball this week, I wouldn’t sleep on the four-time Sprint Cup champion, especially at Indy. “You might revisit here in three years and say ‘what does the next contract look like?’ But it’s pretty profitable at this point”, Cavin says. He’s one of the sports’ bad boys, which is good – really, really good – for a sport that prides itself both on the talent of its drivers and their distinct personalities. The race, which attracted a quarter of a million fans for its first running in 1994, had attendance closer to 60,000 a year ago.

This season, he scored a thrilling win in just the fourth race of the season at Phoenix International Raceway by.01 of a second over runner-up Carl Edwards. The odd circumstances put Gordon in a position nearly equivalent to racing for someone else.

Truex, who had his best career result at Indy past year with a fourth-place finish, doesn’t doubt for one second that his No. 78 Auto-Owners Insurance Toyota can win the revered race.

Gordon has not competed since retiring after the 2015 season finale. By how quick Elliott has been this year it’s a safe bet he’ll be further up the grid during the race. While he has never won at Indy, he has come close with a runner-up finish, three Top 5s and half of his 12 career starts resulting in Top 10 finishes.

Alert the presses: Mercedes hasn’t won at Hungary since 2013.

“Indy is another race that we all want to win”, Truex Jr. said. He finished second by inches in the Daytona 500 and then went on to win the Coca-Cola 600 in record fashion at Charlotte Motor Speedway, leading 392 of 400 laps. Australia’s Will Power was the victor at the end of the weekend, while last year’s victor, Josef Newgarden, crashed on lap 58, right in front of where I was taking pictures.