Dale Jr., a 26-time NASCAR Cup Series race winner, recently supported his claim made last week that the Atlanta Motor Speedway offers superior racing to Daytona’s season-opening event. He referred to last Sunday’s (February 23) Ambetter Health 400 as the pinnacle of NASCAR racing in the most recent episode of his podcast, Dale Jr. Download. In the last episode, the one ahead of the Atlanta event, Earnhardt Jr. vented his frustration in the season-opening Daytona 500. He grumbled that rather than working hard for position, drivers were wasting a lot of the race just conserving gasoline. He went on to say that the current Superspeedway racing package has diminished the excitement of the races by influencing how cars perform at venues like Daytona and Talladega.
However, Dale Jr. applauded the racing action in Atlanta, saying it was more competitive and fierce, with drivers fighting hard for position and taking more risks. “I’ve been thoroughly entertained the last two or three times I’ve visited Atlanta. It’s far more entertaining to watch. He remarked, “It’s intense as hell,” anticipating a strong racing performance in Atlanta (59:40 onwards). Earnhardt Jr. was not disappointed with the action on Sunday. Rather, he declared the race to be the best racing action available in NASCAR and appreciated it more than before.
“We had a fantastic start to the season, based on what I witnessed at Daytona. However, here’s how it could be better, right? “Look man, I want it to be better, I want it to be different from what I experienced,” is OK. That’s all I was attempting to do last week, and it’s acceptable to state that. We next traveled to Atlanta, where we witnessed what was essentially the pinnacle of NASCAR. It’s not hyperbole to say that what we witnessed in Atlanta is the best available,” Dale Jr. said. The Hall of Famer was also pleased with NASCAR’s handling of the race’s conclusion.
Dale Jr. agrees with NASCAR’s choice to finish the race by throwing caution
Dale Jr. offered his opinions on the current dispute surrounding NASCAR’s decision to implement the 2004-introduced green-white-checkered rule. According to the rule, NASCAR will send the race into overtime rather than terminating it under caution if there is a crash in the last two laps. If the field crashed during the first overtime restart, there would be another one. In order to guarantee that spectators could witness the race’s conclusion in racing conditions, this was done. However, NASCAR’s implementation of the rule has been inconsistent in previous races.
While a caution was issued to terminate the Cup Series race in Atlanta, the opposite was done the night before in the Xfinity race, where the drivers raced to the finish line. Following a significant collision on the final lap, the Daytona 500 also did not see a caution flag, and William Byron had to outrun Tyler Reddick to win. Dale Jr. agreed with NASCAR’s decision to exercise care following the last-lap collision in Atlanta, regardless of what others may have thought. “I didn’t care at all how the Cup race turned out. I’ve been in the sport for 30 years, and while I don’t have eyes on the back straightaway to tell if someone is sitting broadside on the racetrack, I’ve seen enough to know that it’s fatal if it even has the potential. Dale Jr. stated on his podcast (from 45:15 onward) that “we don’t even need to have that conversation.”
The Echopark Texas Grand Prix, which is set to begin at 3:30 pm ET on Sunday, March 2, at COTA, will mark NASCAR’s return to competition this weekend.
