Dale Earnhardt Jr. is ”optimistic about the overall health of the sport” though he is worried about how the Next-Gen car races
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Dale Earnhardt Jr.
NASCAR introduced the Next-Gen cars o the sport with the main objective of making the field much closer and more competitive. Though there have been some radical changes backfiring for NASCAR in the recent past, the Next-Gen cars have been a success or have been flirting with success. There also has been some criticism coming the way of NASCAR on how the cars have been running in some tracks, especially the short ones, where it isn’t producing the excitement, it used to do in the past.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. is among the most influential and widely recognized NASCAR personas in the racing community and his opinions on matters concerning NASCAR does have reach among the community. Now in his recent interview with the Athletic, the Hall of Famer has come forth expressing his thoughts on how the Next-Gen car has been this season as he pointed out that he is worried about the car’s performance in the short tracks.
Find out Dale Earnhardt Jr. said
Dale Earnhardt Jr acknowledged that he is most optimistic about the overall health of the sport as he finds the direction it is running towards as a positive one. He pointed out that NASCAR has some great personalities in the pipeline and at the cup level. He added that having them is of much importance to the sport as individuals such as those who either gravitate or polarize the fans as race drivers will be a good thing going forward.
“I’m most optimistic about the overall health of the sport. When you back away and just take it all in, the direction we’re heading in is a very positive one. We’ve got some great personalities in the pipeline and we’ve got some great personalities at the Cup level now. But personalities are so important and really having people the fans can gravitate to and polarizing individuals driving these race cars. We’ve got some good things going on there,” Dale Earnhardt Jr. said.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. went on to say that what worries him the most with the Next-Gen cars is how they race in short tracks, which he was a big fan of, as he points out the less entertaining race that took place at Martinsville this season. He went on to say that NASCAR has to work out things that will allow a great show at Martinsville or the Bristol concrete track or the Richmond Raceway, tracks which are known for aggressive, hard bumping, and grinding racing.
“What worries me is the new car and how it races. Like Martinsville — that worries me so much. I’m such a huge fan of short tracks, and we’ve got to get this thing to where it’s a great show at Martinsville, and you want to be able to go to Bristol when it’s concrete or Richmond and all these other places and expect to see what we’ve typically known as short-track racing. Very aggressive and hard bumping and grinding and all that good stuff,” Dale Earnhardt Jr. added.
Dale Jr added that the car is built for more than just one type of track, but it is keener towards road course racing as it has independent rear suspension and a diffuser, things which are great for that kind of racing. He pointed out that this has made the NASCAR more like the IMSA-styled sports car driving experience as he suggests that the Next-Gen car experience that was got from Richmond was fairly similar to what happens if you put an IMSA car on ovals.
“The car wasn’t built specifically for any one thing, but it has all these components that would really lend it to being a great road-racing car with the independent rear suspension and the diffuser and all those things. It really leaned more toward an IMSA-style sports car driving experience. If I took IMSA cars and put them at Martinsville, I pretty much got what I thought I’d see in our Cup race a couple of months ago,” says Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. said that he hoped for a short track revolution or short tack rebirth with the introduction of Next-Gen cars which might have liked it to conduct more short course races but the cars being more inclined towards the road course spectrum has taken the air out of the sail, saying “So that worries me, it really does, because I was hoping we would have this short track revolution and rebirth where the sport would swing toward including more short tracks into its schedule. And boy, I don’t know. It really has taken the wind out of the sails for anything like that to happen,”.
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