Dale Earnhardt Jr. asserts finale venue Phoenix never guarantees “great races”

Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt Jr. has explained why Phoenix raceway hasn’t been able to host an above average season finale.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. asserts finale venue Phoenix never guarantees “great races”

Dale Earnhardt Jr. (Via IMAGO)

NASCAR has been hosting the season finale at Phoenix Raceway over half a decade and the track hasn’t matched the expectation of the race fans yet. It lacked the excitement that’s offered by many other tracks in the schedule and with the 2024 finale almost being a snoozefest, the fans are really disappointed with it.

Only 41.6% fans said the Phoenix race was good in Jeff Gluck’s usual poll on X, and it shows how inconsistently the track is in delivering. Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt Jr. discussed this factor in the latest episode of his podcast and pointed out that NASCAR has other track in the schedules that guarantees more entertaining races.

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Gluck did a poll, did Phoenix live up to the moment? 41.6% said, yes. Am I right? Not great. Look, Phoenix is going to Phoenix sometimes. I think the general opinion is, there are more exciting race tracks.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. said via Dale Jr. Download.

While further talking about the topic, he pointed out that its really hard to build a race track that gives entertaining races every time. Phoenix is a track that often produces average races and occasionally the great races, like the Xfinity series event that crowned the champion.

Look, you can build 50 race tracks, they’re not all, you can try your hardest you know, to build 50 race tracks of different types, and there’s going to be a great one and there’s going to be one that’s not so good. And Phoenix kinda falls right in the middle somewhere. Sometimes you have some great events. We had a great event in the Xfinity Series the night before.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. added.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. explains why the Xfinity race was better

Justin Allgaier, Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s driver at JRM, won his maiden title at Phoenix with an impressive drive in the Xfinity finale. The race as well as the crowing of the champion was an impressive event. Junior while explaining what made the race better, pointed at the car being slightly better, the drivers being more error prone and less experienced.

Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. (Via IMAGO)

The car, I think is just a more entertaining race car because of how difficult it is to drive. The drivers are not perfect. In the Cup Series, they’re good. They don’t mess up. I almost said the F-word. They don’t mess up. And in the Xfinity Series, we’re prone to mistakes. That causes opportunities.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. said.

Junior has made some strong points about the lack of entertaining factors with Phoenix race. The Next-Gen car s a major factor in it and this should have been factor that inspires NASCAR to change the venue, but unfortunately it hasn’t happened yet.