Dale Earnhardt Jr. confesses he used to ‘hate boring COTA’

NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt Jr. has shared his feeling about COTA and how the layout change racing better.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. confesses he used to ‘hate boring COTA’

Dale Earnhardt Jr. (Via abc30)

The NASCAR Cup garage had an impressive race at the Circuit of Americas last Sunday, with Joe Gibbs Racing’s Christopher Bell winning the race taking advantage of a late wreck. It was an entertaining race and the change to the COTA layout played an important role in it. The pace of the overall event was increased after almost one mile of the track was reduced.

For NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt Jr., it was a change that was long overdue. In the latest episode of his Dale Jr. Download podcast, the two times Xfinity Series champion admitted that he used to hate the long Austin track. He revealed that the track and course limit made the racing frustrating for him.

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I didn’t like COTA. I didn’t like the long track. Boring. Cautions take forever. Course limits, track limits bulls***. I hated the track; didn’t like it. Bunch of piant red, white and blue and s*** everywhere. Not into it.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. said via Dale Jr. Download podcast.

He then highlighted that the only factor he loved about the track was the hill up to turn 1. Once that point is crossed, it’s just a big old piece of asphalt as it never gave him a feel of a normal racetrack that he can enjoy.

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When they go up the hill into Turn 1, that was cool. But as soon as they get out of Turn 1, it’s just a big old piece of asphalt with paint all over it. …It just doesn’t look like a racetrack. Didn’t enjoy it.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. added.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. loves COTA now after layout change

The change to the track made Dale Jr. fall in love with the track again and he can’t say enough about how good it made the event. He then admitted that when the layout change was initially announced, he didn’t think its going to change things but was shocked when things changed.

Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. (Via NASCAR.com)

New COTA, f***ing awesome! I love it. New COTA is great. I can’t say it enough. …They didn’t do nothing but take a mile out of the racetrack. …They just literally took a mile off this stupid track and made it an awesome track. I’m shocked because I would have never thought that I would like it. …This is why I don’t build racetracks.

Dale Earnhardt said.

The Hall of Famer seems to be impressed with how NASCAR has made the racing better and has showed the pathway towards how to make the Next-Gen era racing better. It would be interesting to see if NASCAR will try to implement the changes, in the other remaining tracks in the series.