Dale Earnhardt Jr. slams Aric Almirola for acting like a “hungry rookie” at Phoenix Xfinity race
NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt Jr. has shared his feeling about Aric Almirola’s controversial Xfinity Series win last Sunday.
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Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Aric Almirola (Via IMAGO)
The three NASCAR national series races at Phoenix Raceway were impressive, with race featuring its own controversial moments. The dramatic moment in the Xfinity Series, came in the final laps during the duel between Joe Gibbs Racing part-time driver Aric Almirola and Hendrick Motorsports’ part-time driver Alex Bowman.
The second tier is known for drivers using each other and being aggressive in the final laps. But when the veterans are battling out, everyone expected a respectful battle. Alex Bowman gave Aric Almirola gave enough gap in the last and didn’t even give make any aggressive move. But latter wasn’t courteous and used him up to win the race.
NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt Jr. was furious with his friend Almirola about how he raced like a hungry rookie and added that the situation needed more respect. He asserted that someone experienced like Almirola, shouldn’t have raced like someone who doesn’t give a sh*t. Junior admitted that situation was really disappointing for Bowman.
We would maybe expect this out of a young, hungry rookie. Then all of us in our mind would go, ‘God, he’s got to learn to race with more respect. Wins are going to come. He’s talented, he doesn’t need to do it that way. But this is Aric Almirola, who has ran his entire Cup career. He’s out there like, ‘I don’t give a s***.’ I think a lot of us don’t really know how to think about the Xfinity race. I know that it sucked for Bowman.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. said via Dale Jr. Download.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. gave a hypocritical take on the situation
In the same conversation, Junior shared his feeling about a potential situation where it was one of his JR Motorsports drivers was at Almirola’s place. The Hall of Famer pointed out that in such situation, he would have taken a hypocritical situation and come up with excuses for his racers.
I agree that it depends on who’s doing it. If that had been one of my drivers, I probably would not feel that bad about it. It wouldn’t be my favorite win of ours in our existence at JR Motorsports. But I would have figured out a way to justify it or at least live with it.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. said.
The comments from the JRM co-oner proves the situation and the drivers would dictate the criticism regarding the situation. But one thing is clear for an experienced driver, who needs to be a role model to the youngster, Almirola failed to produce a clean fight.
Aric Almirola refuses to take blame on the incident
Despite the controversy, the JGR veteran isn’t ready take the blame for his actions and came up with arguments supporting himself. He admitted that he used Bowman to win the race but believes it was warranted, claiming he didn’t do anything egregious.
I just knew I needed to get from there to here first. I knew I was going to use him up a little bit, but was trying to win the race. I feel like it was warranted. I didn’t feel like I did anything overly egregious. I just throttled up, and it was a drag race to the start-finish line.
Aric Almirola said.
The comment from Almirola shows he isn’t ready to own up to mistakes and that fact that he has shown the youngster, even the ones he mentors at JGR, that they can race without respect for wins. It’s a situation that needs to criticize and the other veterans of the sport should speak their mind on it.
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