USA Today

There is, Earnhardt said, no offseason deadline when the team would require him to be deemed fully recovered to resume driving duties in 2017.
“If there is,” he said. “I don’t know it.”
Earnhardt said he enjoyed being back in his workplace, albeit in a different capacity. While he has been assured his presence has been heartening to his team, he is more concerned about taking steps back to the job where he contributes most.
“My crew chiefs and all the management at HMS tell me that it’s good for them, so I like being around them,” he said. “We’re all good friends, so it’s good to see ‘em. But they’re working, too, so I try to stay out of the way. But I want to be here, I guess, just to kind of see what they’re doing, what they’re dealing with, so when I get back in the car it’s not so foreign, I don’t have a lot of catching up to.”
Earnhardt, 41, said walking the grid before Xfinity Series qualifying that while his vision has improved, he continues to struggle with balance, a condition heightened by plying the busy garage and all the stimulus that comes with being NASCAR’s most popular and noticeable driver.