Dale Earnhardt Jr. Breaks Silence on North Wilkesboro Chat Leaks During Settled NASCAR lawsuit

Dale Earnhardt Jr. has finally broken silence on the entire NASCAR leaked chats fiasco, especially regarding the North Wilkesboro race.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. Breaks Silence on North Wilkesboro Chat Leaks During Settled NASCAR lawsuit

Dale Earnhardt Jr. (via Getty)

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NASCAR has finally achieved a mutual agreement in the charter lawsuit against 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports. The sport has agreed to provide a lifetime charter to the teams with certain caveats.

Though the case is now over, Dale Earnhardt Jr. has opened up on the entire fiasco and how he was dragged and berated in the text chats without even having any involvement in the charter lawsuit.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. remains one of the widely loved figures in NASCAR despite his exit from the sport way back. His team in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series (formerly Xfinity Series) has achieved great success in the 2025 season and is looking to make its mark in the Cup Series as well.

Now, despite Dale Jr’s heavy involvement and importance in the sport, he was criticized in the leaked chats of the NASCAR authorities, particularly Steve O’Donnell, Steve Phelps, Ben Kennedy, and others.

Speaking on the entire matter, Dale Earnhardt Jr. simply accepted that he did not know everything about how NASCAR runs the sport, and why they felt so strongly against some people in the sport and the North Wilkesboro race.

However, Dale Jr. was sure that the North Wilkesboro now being a point-paying race wasn’t merely because of the leading authorities, more so after the case settlement.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. declared that Marcus Smith was the one who was responsible for North Wilkesboro’s comeback on the schedule as a points race. The former NASCAR star reckoned that Smith must have been the one to approach NASCAR, claiming that he fixed the North Wilkesboro track and wanted to put it on the schedule, while the authorities simply agreed to the deal.

I don’t know everything about how they run things, and I certainly didn’t know how they felt about some things, and how these text messages have unveiled some things. North Wilkesboro came back because of Marcus Smith. NASCAR, you know, they didn’t play any role. When Marcus comes up and says, ‘Man, I’ve got this track back together, I want to put it on the schedule.’ They’ve gotta go, ‘Okay, good.’

Dale Earnhardt Jr. said via Dale Jr. Download.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. claims NASCAR isn’t ‘responsible’ for North Wilkesboro’s comeback

NASCAR recently announced major changes to the Window World 450 and increased the race running laps to 450 from the previous 400. After almost 30 years, the North Wilkesboro race will award points to the drivers, which is certainly a massive feat.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. (via Imago)
Dale Earnhardt Jr. (via Imago)

The racing circuit, which seemed to be unusable by NASCAR at one point, is now one of the most loved tracks on the entire calendar. And Dale Earnhardt Jr. firmly believes that the sport isn’t the one to thank for this massive change.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. acknowledged that he wasn’t trying to criticize NASCAR for turning a blind eye towards North Wilkesboro. However, he was sure that Wilkesboro was back in great form because of everybody else except the sport.

The local people and die-hard fans kept the track in good condition, and being good enough to make a comeback in the NASCAR calendar in recent years. As such, Dale Jr. believed that these people should be commended for the sport, as it was them responsible for the massive comeback.

They shouldn’t take this as an insult, but Wilkesboro is back because of everybody else. The government, our local government, and the town, a lot of volunteers. F**king, 20 years of volunteers, people just like even keeping the grass mowed for 20 years. All of those reasons, the fact that they kept the track in somewhat reasonable shape, to even be considered to be brought back. Those people should be commended.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. noted.

Certainly, the entire charter lawsuit brought many shocking things to light that were never even comprehensible to the fans and drivers before. Though the sport has been caught red-handed now, they still have an upper hand following the settlement in the case. For now, NASCAR will hope to recover from the massive losses it has incurred in the 2025 season and hope for the sport to witness much better days in the near future.

Read More: Kenny Wallace Exposes Why Tony Stewart Left NASCAR After Charter Settlement