Dale Earnhardt Jr. Has a Very Blunt Confession About the NASCAR Teams

In the buildup to the 2022 NASCAR season and the debut of the Next Gen cars, Dale Earnhardt Jr. had his doubts. The newly inducted Hall of Famer is worried that teams may try to push the boundaries with these cars. Taking it at face value, pushing the boundaries of development is not a bad thing. However, the big problem will arise if teams decide to try to improve by hook or by crook.

Now that the car has seen racing action for the first time, has Dale Jr changed his stance? The short answer is that even though NASCAR has tried to place many restrictions, teams will try to get “creative”. From his own personal experience, many teams will go through hell and high water to eke out every advantage possible.

Earnhardt confessed, “With all of the components, there’s all new places and areas for them to get creative in. And when I say get creative, I mean cheat. I think that it’s going to be a very, very difficult task for NASCAR to control all the creativity that these teams are going to try to develop.”

Is Dale Earnhardt Jr right in his assessment?

Admittedly, the sport has tried to curb this with the introduction of vendor-supplied parts. In other words, every team has access to the same parts, and everyone is on equal machinery. In spite of all this, Dale Earnhardt Jr insists that NASCAR may try its hardest, but ‘cheating’ will continue to happen.

According to the former driver, with the new car in play, there is a need to find an advantage. The organisations have to be willing to gamble on the fine line between cracking the code and getting caught. Obviously, NASCAR will come down heavily on teams if they are caught, but that’s a risk they have to take.

Dale Jr. did acknowledge that while the car is pretty much an open canvas, the officials will be vigilant. This is largely because of the vendor-supplied parts, which was NASCAR’s intension. However, it is a matter of waiting to see which team will crack first and/or get hauled up. History tells us that the likelihood of alterations to the new cars is inevitable. However, the big question is how bad will the punishments be?

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