Dale Earnhardt Jr. Blasts NASCAR Over Insecure SRX Racing Comments Exposed in Court

NASACR Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt Jr. has shared his thoughts on Steve O'Donnell text leak over SRX Racing series.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. Blasts NASCAR Over Insecure SRX Racing Comments Exposed in Court

Dale Earnhardt Jr. (via Imago)

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The whole garage is finally taking a well deserved rest, after watching the two weeks of nightmarish charter lawsuit trial involving 23XI-FRM and NASACR garage. But the ugly details and especially the internal messages that became public are still among the biggest topics of discussions. Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt Jr. is concerned about one of the details.

Talking about the lawsuit, before the historical settlement deal that promised evergreen charters, on his Dale Jr. Podcast the JR Motorsports co-owner shared his thoughts on text messages regarding the SRX Racing series. The likes of Steve O’Donnell were discussing potential actions against drivers and owners getting involved in the series, fearing the championship might affect NASACR ratings.

I gotta be honest, this shocked me. I want to say that I’m a big fan, and I think I’m a good friend with Ray Evernham. When he started talking about SRX and what he wanted to do, in his mind, he wanted to re-create IROC.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. said via Dale Jr Download.

The series was created as another version of the IROC and was never intended to be a direct rival of NASACR and the sport leadership thinking otherwise is concerning according to Junior. They succeeded to a limit because the fans loved to see legendary racers driving against each other in top local tracks that were once some of the best venues in the US Motorsports scene.

The initial idea of SRX as a series that would go into these local markets, and you would bring out these retired guys and some unique personalities, different forms of racing and offer up a car to the local hero. The original idea of SRX, in my mind, was a good idea.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. added.

Regardless of all these factors being great crowd pullers, Dale Earnhardt Jr. wasn’t a great fan of the championship. He admitted that despite the series featuring his close associates he didn’t see the races as it didn’t serve his interest like NASACR did. The veteran seems to believe the majority of the stock car racing fandom had the same feeling as him and it’s a rational thought.

I will say, though, I wasn’t interested in it, personally. Out of the gate, I just didn’t have the bandwidth to get into it. I wasn’t a fan; I didn’t really watch too much of it. … No offense to anybody out there that was SRX fans or anybody that worked in the series… but I wasn’t into it.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. asserted.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. calls out Steve O’Donnell over leaked texts

In the same conversation, he directly addressed the comments from O’Donnell regarding him being threatened regarding the ratings and hinting at a potential legal move against SRX. He declared that he was shocked seeing the leadership reacting like that and asserted that at no point did SRX show signs of being a problem for the NASACR Cup Series.

Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. (Via Newsweek)

I am surprised by the some of the comments I read from O’Donnell and a couple people of, ‘Man we gotta put an end to this or we gotta go take a look at this.’ Why are we worried? I don’t care [about the ratings], people were gonna be curious. … I’m not alarmed by that. … I was really surprised by that. I never saw, no disrespect, but I never would’ve worried or considered SRX a problem.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. said.

The comments from the two times Busch Series champion seems rational and the insecure comments from the NASACR leadership shows the fragile state the sport is regarding market reach as well as ratings. The focus should really be on how to fix this factor instead of the small rivals series that is taking advantage of the nostalgia factor.

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