Earnhardt up for test drive

KANSAS CITY, KAN. Dale Earnhardt Jr. is expected to be cleared to race this weekend at Martinsville Speedway, car owner Rick Hendrick said Sunday.

Hendrick said Earnhardt is scheduled to be in a race car today to see how he feels. It will mark the first time Earnhardt has driven on a racetrack since he was involved in a last-lap crash Oct. 7 at Talladega Superspeedway and suffered his second concussion in six weeks.

Jerry Petty, the Charlotte neurosurgeon treating him, could clear him after further tests Tuesday. Hendrick said he would be shocked if Earnhardt was not in the car at Martinsville, and he was not making plans to have a backup driver.

“He’s burning up to get in the car,” Hendrick said. “He wanted to run this weekend. He’s very anxious.”

Regan Smith drove Earnhardt’s No. 88 Chevrolet the past two weeks; he was seventh at Kansas Speedway.

“He’s burning up to get in the car. He wanted to run this weekend.”

Rick Hendrick, on Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Danica drove ‘ like maniac’:

Danica Patrick was frustrated with Landon Cassill on Sunday, so she spun him. The move knocked her out of the race and drew scorn from crew chief Greg Zipadelli, who radioed to his driver, “You know better than that.”

Patrick and Cassill, whose No. 83 Toyota finished 18th, often race near each other. “If it’s one time, I can imagine frustration,” she said. “But it’s been pretty consistent with him getting into me.”

Cassill told SB Nation that he earlier slammed into the No. 10 Chevrolet because Patrick was “driving like a maniac, making it three-wide on a restart. ... I hit her because she was driving like an idiot for 30th.”

Patrick will have new direction in her next Cup race Nov. 4 at Texas Motor Speedway. Stewart-Haas Racing has assigned Tony Gibson, Ryan Newman’s crew chief of four seasons, to lead Patrick in 2013.