Dale Earnhardt Jr. SLAMS Trackhouse Racing as Shane van Gisbergen Fades to Insignificance at Dover

NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt Jr. has called out Trackhouse Racing's lack of productivity at Dover International Speedway.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. SLAMS Trackhouse Racing as Shane van Gisbergen Fades to Insignificance at Dover

Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Shane van Gisbergen (Via IMAGO)

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The driver that disappointed the fans the most last week at Dover International Speedway was Shane van Gisbergen. He has been the talking point of the sports in the raid course stretch, winning three races. But at Dover he qualified poor and ended the day as the 31st fastest car, never being a significant factor in the race

Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt Jr. shared his thoughts on the ex-Supercars champion performance on his podcast and has placed the blame on Trackhouse Racing for the poor outing. He believes his right front tire failing right away in the race ruined any scope for assessing how Shane van Gisbergen‘s oval game has improved following the raid course wins.

We’re coming out of the road courses, where there was a ton of SVG talk. We’re now back to the ovals, where SVG told us last week he was looking forward to going to Dover. He goes out there, flat right-front tire right away. Ruined any opportunity for him to truly gauge himself against the competition at the ovals, and try to carry forward that learning curve.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. stated via Dale Jr. Download.

It wasn’t just SVG that struggled on the day from the Trackhouse garage. Ross Chastain DNFed after having a tough race, while Daniel Suarez scored ten teams best finish of P26, showing how the Trackhouse Chevy’ lacked speed to produce a solid result. This failure from the team might have affected the confidence of the Kiwi racer, who was looking forward to the weekend determined to prove himself.

Looking at his speed metrics in the NASCAR Insights, he was 31st overall on speed. … I feel like that he’s probably wishing or hoping that it might have been a little bit of a better weekend, in terms of just overall pace. I think that the Trackhouse stuff just wasn’t very good this weekend.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. added.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. urges Trackhouse to step up their game or suffer with Shane van Gisbergen

Further talking about the point, Dale Earnhardt Jr. shared his thoughts on the possibility of SVG getting eliminated on the Round of 16 in the playoffs, if his poor streak of performance continues in the oval races. The playoff points advantage he has from the three wins won’t be enough, if he can’t secure top-10 finishes in the first round of the playoffs.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Shane van Gisbergen
Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Shane van Gisbergen (Via IMAGO and @shanevg97/X)

They’re going to have to improve their cars a lot to give SVG a chance. What I’m worried about is, how loud is the noise going to be if he goes in and misses and gets eliminated in the Round of 16 with 17 or more playoff points? That would be pretty unprecedented, I believe, to be eliminated in the first round with that bit of an advantage.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. said.

So, the advice Junior has for his close ally Justin Marks and his team is simple: work extra hard on their cars and make sure the No:88 team fields the most competitive vehicle they can for their international star driver. SVG can only improve his performance if he gets the right cars to tackle the challenges in the postseason.

I think Trackhouse has to work a little bit to try to help SVG over these next couple of weeks. Kind of dial it in a little bit. He’s got to improve, but the car’s got to get better too, man.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. asserted.

The comments from ten two times Xfinity Series champion is rational and something NASCAR should take into account. It would be interesting to see how everything is going to play out for SVG and Trackhouse Racing in the coming years.

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