Dale Earnhardt Jr Goes Ballistic on NASCAR’s Controlling Nature: “Don’t Give Me the Toy and Tell Me How to Play With It”

The 2024 All-Star Race had a fair number of unique elements to it. Pre-race, authorities delayed waving the green flag to wait for Kyle Larson to return from Indy 500 qualifying. Post-race, a colorful brawl broke out between the RCR No. 8 team and the JTG Daugherty No. 47 team. But mid-race, an interesting feature enhanced the quality of racing.

After the success of Goodyear’s tire fall-off at the Bristol race, both NASCAR and the tire brand set into motion a tire experiment for the ever-innovative All-Star Race. But they had to regulate it and deprive race teams of leeway. This bummed out Dale Earnhardt Jr as he recently observed.

Dale Earnhardt Jr calls out NASCAR 

Two years ago, Dale Earnhardt Jr saw his meticulous planning come to fruition. For 27 years, North Wilkesboro Speedway lay in ruins in the Brushy Mountains of North Carolina. Then dreamers like Dale Jr put time, encouragement, and leadership into its revival, beginning in 2019. Finally, Junior raced at the historic .625-mile track in the CARS Tour Late Model Stock race in 2022. The All-Star Race followed suit in 2023.

So Dale Earnhardt Jr’s emotions associated with this track are a notch higher than many. This year’s multiple-tire strategy was rolled out at the NWS All-Star Race, and Dale Jr strongly disapproved of it. He said in a recent episode of Dale Jr Download: “We had Elton Sawyer in here and he explained this to us, ‘Hey, we’re gonna do this, we’re gonna pay attention to these tires, that’s how it would work.’ Do I want NASCAR to have two options for every race? Absolutely not. I know, I don’t need that. I’m not missing that.”

Yet it was not so much the actual tire strategy as the implementation that got on Dale Jr’s nerves. “I guess I might like it a lot more if NASCAR was like, ‘Here’s the tire, do what you gonna do.’ And so I think there was a little bit of control in NASCAR like, ‘You gotta do this, you gotta do it in certain ways…’ I’m like, alright, you’re taking the fun out of it. Don’t give me the toy and tell me how to play with it. Let me freaking do what I want here.”

Race teams were given nine sets of tires for the weekend, including five sets of primes and four sets of options. But the caveat lay in the added rules. Mismatching primes and options were not permitted, and teams should use all four tires of the same type at all times. Then starting the All-Star Race on options was mandatory. This is why Dale Earnhardt Jr felt that NASCAR stripped the fun out of the show.

Yet Junior exercised his usual penchant for empathy and understood why the officials had to be strict in their rules.

Dale Jr tones down his diatribe

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There is a reason Dale Earnhardt Jr won the Most Popular Driver award 15 times in a row. The North Carolina native is known to strike a chord among fans and aspiring drivers alike. Dale Jr ropes in individuals every week with the most inspiring grassroots stories. Recently, his pupil Sam Mayer edged out RSS Racing’s Ryan Sieg in the Texas Xfinity race. While celebrating Mayer’s win, Dale Jr also conveyed his empathy and admiration for the family-run team.

Hence, even as Dale Earnhardt Jr calls out NASCAR for its controlling attitude toward the NWS tire options, he understands why. “I understand there were some issues on pit road, they were worried about people getting hurt and all those things…you know, coming in pits drivers might slide into a person and get’em injured…They had to have some sort of control over the changing of tires during those treacherous situations.”

Yet he again harped on his point: “But I wish they could just let the crew chiefs decide. If I wanna put on white tires or slicks, it’s up to me.”

Dale Earnhardt Jr dislikes the tire strategy at NWS, so let us see what the higher-ups have to say about that.