RICHMOND, Virginia — Chronic back pain sent Jeff Gordon back to the doctor this week, and the four-time NASCAR champion is hopeful he’s moved a step closer to diagnosing his problem.
Gordon said on Friday he underwent an MRI, but was not ready to discuss the full results.
“When I know how we’re going to treat it, I’ll let you guys know,” he said. “I don’t believe it’s anything serious, it’s just something that’s causing the pain. There’s a little bit of arthritis, which is not totally unnatural. But there are also some other things that come, from what they can understand, from trauma, from a crash, or maybe just from years of beating it up.
“Heck, I might have picked up my luggage or something and tore something up in there. So I don’t know.”
Gordon suffered through back pain last year, his first winless season since his 1993 rookie year. He only revealed the issue at the start of this season when he began using a trainer to help him properly stretch his back before and after races.
But the pain has lingered, and Gordon is certain it will be an issue in Saturday’s Russ Friedman 400 at Richmond International Raceway. Because of the tight confines of the .750-mile (1,200-meter) track, Gordon expects a long night.
“This will be a tough weekend, because of the G-forces and the braking you use here and the long runs we have here,” said Gordon, who is also fighting through a bad case of allergies this weekend. “It will be tough on my back. It will be a strain. We’ll just have to fight through it.”
Gordon crashed six laps into last Sunday’s race at Talladega, and his 37th-place finish knocked him out of the points lead. He now trails Kurt Busch by five points.
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