“Damn it would’ve been nice to lock in tonight!” Dale Earnhardt Jr. responds to Justin Allgaier’s failure to qualify for Daytona 500 on JRM’s Cup debut

NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt Jr. has responded to his driver Justin Allgaier after failing top the Daytona 500 qualifying.

“Damn it would’ve been nice to lock in tonight!” Dale Earnhardt Jr. responds to Justin Allgaier’s failure to qualify for Daytona 500 on JRM’s Cup debut

Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Justin Allgaier (Via IMAGO)

The NASCAR Cup gargae is at Daytona International Speedway for the first race of the 2025 season. 45 cars have shown up for the Daytona 500 Speedweeks, with the hopes of making into the Great American Race on Sunday. Among the open entries for the event is, Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s JR Motorsports.

The team fielded the No:40 Traveller’s Whiskey sponsored Chevy, with the technical support from Hendrick Motorsport for their Cup debut. The reigning Xfinity Series champion Jsutin Allgaier led the team in the practice and qualifying session but failed to make an impact. Martin Truex Jr. and Jimmie Johnson finished as the fastest open cars in the session, securing starting spot for Sunday.

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This puts the veteran racer in a tough position going into the duels. He will have to finish as one of the top-2 racers in the event, to secure a starting spot in the final race. Corey LaJoie, JJ Yaley, Anthony Alfredo, Chandler Smith, BJ McLeod and Helio Castroneves are al capable of ruining his chances. So, Dale Earnhardt Jr. seem to be bit concerned with his comments about the No:40 not qualifying directly.

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Damn it woulda [‘ve] been nice to lock in tonight…But we get to come back tomorrow and race our way into the Daytona 500 in a dual [sic]. Living the dream.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. wrote on X.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. shares his idea on how to fix the issue around practice as Daytona

One of the major issues the team and driver have going into races is limited practice, but when it comes to Daytona the aren’t much keen about having practice session. This year some racer has event commented the practise session is unnecessary.

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

While responding to a question from a race fan regarding the same, Junior shared a crazy idea to fix it. He sarcastically pointed out that NASCAR has already made it an open pre-qualifying practice session at Daytona, where teams are free to opt out if the needs to and there is no need to make complaints.

Here’s an idea. Open the track up for practice. If you don’t want to practice, you don’t practice. If you want to practice, you practice. Crazy idea I know, but would you believe they used this method for decades with no real complaints.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. said.

The comments from Dale Earnhardt Jr. shows he isn’t fan of all the fuzz around the claims from the drivers. It would be interesting to see how NASCAR is going approach the comments from team and if they consider making any changes.