Dale Earnhardt Jr. refuses “agree” with Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin over COTA penalty controversy

NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt Jr. shared his feelings about the Austin Cindric right hook and penalty controversy.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. refuses “agree” with Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin over COTA penalty controversy

Denny Hamlin, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kyle Busch (Via IMAGO)

The NASCAR Cup Series race at COTA last Sunday was an impressive event that saw Joe Gibbs Racing’s Christopher Bell taking advantage of a late race caution to win the event. One of the most controversial events of the day was Team Penske Racing’s Austin Cindric‘s right hooking Ty Dillon deliberately, resulting in him getting a 50 points penalty and $50,000 fine.

Veterans Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin wasn’t happy with how minimal the penalty was and called out NASCAR. Now Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt Jr. via his Dale Jr. Download podcast shared his feelings about the penalty drama. He admitted that he expected NASCAR to make a decision based on common sense based on the situation.

Listen, if you have a history of doing these things, NASCAR’s going to … that’s going to play in. It’s common sense that that would play into a decision that NASCAR might make. We talked on the Dirty Air show Tuesday, and I go back and forth with this one.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. said on the Dale Jr. Download.

He the recalled the comments from Busch and Hamlin on the situation. Assessing the criticism, Junior pointed out that he doesn’t believe he can’t agree with the calls for penalty owing to the fact that the right-hook wasn’t as egregious as expected.

I understand what some of the drivers are saying as far as Kyle Busch and Denny (Hamlin), who are like, ‘Hey man, a right hook is a right hook. I don’t care if you’re going 10 miles an hour or 200 miles an hour, right hook is a right hook and it should all be treated the same.’ But yeah, I don’t know. I don’t know if I can agree with that.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. added.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. professes his love for new COTA track

The JR Motorsports co-owner in the same podcast shared his feelings abpout the changed layout the COTA track that made racing more entertaining. He admitted that he loves the track now unlike in the past following the race, as in the past he saw the track as one of the stupidest tracks.

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

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 Jr. said.

The comments from the Hall of Famer proves the layout change had a massive impact both on the racing side as well as the entrainment side. It would be interesting to see if NASCAR chose to make changes inspired by COTA to road courses in the future.