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CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- It took less than four laps for Dale Earnhardt Jr. to feel back at home in his race car. His test this week at Darlington Raceway was the final hurdle for NASCARs most popular driver to earn clearance to compete next season.The test ended months of speculation -- should Earnhardt retire? Was the risk of suffering yet another concussion too great? -- and a detailed medical plan helped get him back on the track when many thought he should just step away for good.When you get something taken away from you, you certainly realize what its worth, Earnhardt said Friday. Im feeling recharged and energized about coming back ready to race. Ive got a lot left in the tank.And he wants to make something perfectly clear: Earnhardt would not be climbing back into the No. 88 Chevrolet if his doctors had not assured him that hes healthy and his past concussion history hasnt put him at a heightened risk of permanent injury.I have a personal responsibility to myself. My health is number one. I am not going to take any unnecessary risks with my health, he said. I wouldnt be coming back to the seat and being excited to drive if there was any additional risk, other than the typical risk that every driver faces. I feel confident in what my doctors are telling me ... in me being able to withstand the normal wear and tear and getting into that unfortunate accident from time to time.Earnhardts lengthy history with concussions flared again this year after a crash at Michigan in June. He missed the final 18 races of the season and spent that time in intensive therapy meant to first help him control vision, balance and nausea. That lengthy process completed, his doctors focused on getting him ready to drive a car again, and it happened Wednesday at the South Carolina track considered one of the most demanding in NASCAR.He admitted to a sleepless night before the test, and an anxiousness to get inside his beloved Chevrolet the moment his feet touched the ground at Darlington. With neurosurgeon Dr. Jerry Petty on site, the Hendrick Motorsports team eased into the session.Earnhardt started with 15-lap runs, then climbed from the car to be assessed by Petty. As the day went on, his vision and balance were not only checking out fine, but improving after every run. Soon he was up to 30 laps at a time, he felt up to speed -- and he felt ready to race.Felt like an old shoe by the end of the day, he said. I felt really, really confident that by the end of the day, I was 100 percent ready to get back in the car.His clearance came as a boost to Hendrick Motorsports, which is already riding high after Jimmie Johnsons record-tying seventh championship. Hendrick made it through the second half of the season with a combination lineup of Jeff Gordon and Alex Bowman, and he insisted the sponsors who pay millions of dollars for Earnhardt to be in the car were concerned only with the driver getting healthy.Although Earnhardt will test again before the season begins at Phoenix -- and hes got a wedding to his longtime girlfriend on Dec. 31 -- he wont actually race until the events leading into Februarys season-opening Daytona 500. He will skip the exhibition race that kicks off Speedweeks at Daytona, not as a health precaution, he said, but because Bowman earned the right to race the car by winning the pole at Phoenix in November.Its owed to Alex, Earnhardt said.Earnhardt has worked closely the last few years with Dr. Micky Collins from the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Sports Medicine Concussion Program. Its been Collins who first got Earnhardt healthy, then helped him get back into competitive condition.Collins has deemed Earnhardt healthy and ready to go, but Earnhardt will continue to work on many of the exercises hes received from the doctor for the sake of strengthening himself.This is from my doctors mouth -- I had to work really hard to be a human being again, to be normal again. The distance between just being myself and just being a race car driver, that was going to be another handful of exercises, he said. His advice was if I wanted to continue the exercises, it would only continue to strengthen the system. Hell, maybe this is something I could have been doing all along.---More AP auto racing: www.racing.ap.org Wholesale Poland Jerseys . Duchene scored two goals and had an assist, helping the Colorado Avalanche beat the Carolina Hurricanes 4-2 on Friday night to match the best 10-game start in team history. Cheap Football Poland Jerseys . - Baltimore Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco is not a fan of his teams use of the wildcat formation, saying "it makes you look like a high school offence. http://www.cheappolandjerseys.com/ . Anthony Calvillo, through 20 CFL seasons, was frequently invincible and largely stoic in the heat of competition. But underneath the professional exterior he was, and is, compellingly human. Womens Poland Jerseys . The Court of Arbitration for Sport ruling "puts an end to my dreams of being a top player," the 27-year-old Troicki said in a statement. "I worked my entire life for it, and it has been taken away from me in one afternoon by a doctor I didnt know," said Troicki, whose ranking peaked at No. Youth Poland Jerseys .Y. - New York City has been selected to host the NBA All-Star weekend in 2015, with the game played at Madison Square Garden and the slam dunk contest and other skills events held at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.BERLIN -- Thomas Mueller scored a hat trick as Bayern Munich opened its German Cup defence with a 5-0 win over fourth-tier side BSV Rehden on Monday. "Such a game is always dangerous," Bayern coach Pep Guardiola said. "So were happy." Xherdan Shaqiri opened the scoring in the 18th, deflecting in Arjen Robbens shot from close range after the Rehden defence failed to clear the ball. Mueller was unmarked when he scored just before halftime with a header from Rafinhas cross. Rehden goalkeeper Milos Mandic denied Mario Mandzukic with an acrobatic save early in the second half, and Mueller hit the crossbar from the resultant corner. However, the Bayern attacker dusted himself off to make it 3-0 from the penalty spot after he was brought down in the area in the 58th, and he completed his hat trick in with a header in the 64th. Mueller was still furious with himself for missing another chancce late on, before Robben wrapped up the scoring two minutes from time.dddddddddddd "Were not perfect yet," Robben said. "Were not at 100 per cent but thats normal. Were ready for the Bundesliga regardless. Well be there on Friday." Earlier Monday, Klaas Jan Huntelaar scored one goal and set up another for Schalke to defeat fifth-tier FC Noettingen 2-0 to advance to the second round. Huntelaar struck in the 30th minute but the visitors were made to wait until the fourth minute of injury time before the Dutchman could set up off-season signing Leon Goretzka to secure the result. "They played well in the first half, hit the crossbar twice," Huntelaar said. "We were bad, you have to be honest." Second-division side Paderborn defeated third-tier MSV Duisburg 3-2, and another second-division side, Union Berlin, won 2-1 at third-division Jahn Regensburg. Cheap NFL Jerseys Wholesale Jerseys Wholesale NFL Jerseys Jerseys From China Wholesale NFL Jerseys Cheap NFL Jerseys Cheap Jerseys ' ' '