Dale Earnhardt Jr Avoids Conflict with Richard Childress One Week After Watkins Glen Fiasco

The NASCAR Cup Series regular season concluded with an intense showdown at Daytona last weekend. Another thrilling event was the Xfinity Series’ Wawa 250 race. In an exciting Friday night that went into double overtime, Justin Allgaier from JR Motorsports clinched his first victory in 26 starts at the International Speedway. Allgaier’s win was special as he brought his team owner, Dale Earnhardt Jr, to the victory lane. This victory must’ve been a relief after the conflicts they faced at Watkins Glen the previous week.

On the ‘Dale Jr Download’ podcast, Dale Jr. and co-host Mike Davis discussed Allgaier’s remarkable win and shared the surprising post-race thoughts of the driver.

Dale Earnhardt Jr shares Daytona wisdom with his driver

The 37-year-old Justin had finished runner-up at Daytona on two previous occasions. In the race on Friday, it seemed like he might do so again but fortunately managed to beat Richard Childress Racing‘s Sheldon Creed by a narrow 0.005 seconds. The eventful race was marred by multiple crashes and led to a couple of overtime restarts with an additional 10 laps. Justin’s time over Sheldon Creed’s was the fourth-closest finish in Xfinity history.

One would expect that the driver would be on cloud nine following the feat. But Dale Jr revealed how his star was rather dejected.

He said, “Apparently, Justin said earlier today in the office that he was committed to pushing the #9 car, but the #9 car got taken out. He felt sort of dejected.” The No.9 car belongs to Justin’s teammate, Brandon Jones.

Dale Jr then went on to talk about the crucial insight that he’d given Justin after the race. “And so the one thing that I told Justin when I went to victory lane… I had one thing to tell him. I said, ‘Man into turn 3, the decision to not block the #2 was what won you the race.”

Considering that the No. 2 car belonged to runner-up Sheldon Creed, it is fortunate that JR Motorsports did not get tangled in a battle with Richard Childress’s team, as they did with Joe Gibbs Racing the previous week.

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The Watkins Glen Fiasco that Dale Jr was fortunate enough to avoid

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In Watkins Glen the previous week, Joe Gibbs’s grandson and rising star driver Ty Gibbs had dominated the road course for much of the race. But a late caution bunched up the field and gave JR Motorsports’ Sam Mayer a chance at glory. Taking advantage of the situation, Mayer nudged Ty Gibbs’ car, sending it into a spin. Dale Jr’s driver took the lead from there and went on to finish first. Collecting his car back, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver came home at a disappointing P17.

In the aftermath of the race, Dale Jr had provided his verdict on the incident and said,“There’s been times when I’ve been pretty embarrassed by some things we’ve done on the racetrack. [However], Saturday was not one of those things, I didn’t feel any embarrassment.” Despite the opinion, the debates that have surrounded his team and driver have been endless. Had a similar accident occurred at Daytona, Dale Jr might have found himself in trouble.

With the win at Daytona, JR Motorsports finds two of its drivers in the top 5 of the Xfinity Driver Standings. With two more races left before the playoffs, the team will be hoping to send its drivers into the fray with maximum advantage. The next race will begin at the Darlington Raceway on Saturday.

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