Dale Earnhardt Jr Not Onboard With NASCAR’s International Expansion After the Clash

This past Sunday, we went back to grassroots NASCAR. Notably, the return to Bowman Gray for the Cook Out Clash after a 53-year absence delivered our expectations. The excitement of the crowds was amazing, and drivers got a taste of the Madhouse in rough-and-tumble wrecks. Moreover, the audience was also diverse – hailing from 44 states, 5 countries, and 3 continents. So now NASCAR is looking to move to a different continent for next year. Yet, Dale Earnhardt Jr. has doubts about it.

The 26-time Cup Series race winner is the face of core NASCAR based in North Carolina. Dale Jr. has also helped restore the North Wilkesboro Speedway track, which was abandoned after the 1997 season. So the veteran driver does not want NASCAR to expand its borders, too much.

Dale Jr. warns of decaying nostalgia

Last year in July, NASCAR employees were told to keep their passports current. According to Chad Seigler, the sport’s Chief International Officer, there was “a universal understanding” that global expansion is on the cards. Soon after, an international points-paying race at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, Mexico City, was incorporated into the 2025 schedule. Talks between NASCAR, the Governor, and the Mayor of São Paulo floated in August, as they discussed a possible clash date in 2026. Now that plan is slowly approaching fruition but with little enthusiasm from Dale Earnhardt Jr.

On a recent episode of Dale Jr. Download, the 15-time Most Popular Driver clarified he has nothing against the sport’s growing wings. However, Dale Earnhardt Jr. does not believe in going out of your way for it. “To be able to go out and attract new fans – yes, you gotta travel. You gotta get outside of your comfort zone. But you don’t have to spend a ton of energy doing that. Be such an entertaining draw, that they come to you.”

If NASCAR goes to Brazil, teams must need 10 days to prepare and leave a week in hand to come back and prepare for the Daytona 500. Dale Jr. does not approve of this huge effort, “If you’re watching on TV, why do you care where it is?… In terms of NASCAR, you have a lane, stay in that lane. Be you, and fans will come to… that.” 

Instead, Dale Earnhardt Jr. focused on the old racetracks of NASCAR – which tapped into the sport’s nostalgia. “Look at the excitement around Bowman Gray – there’s great energy around Wilkesboro, Rockingham Speedway’s kind of come back into the fold. Those racetracks are the racetracks we were running when the sport boomed out of control in the 2000s.”

He continued, “We didn’t explode around that time because we were in Brazil or going to the Coliseum – we had everything we needed right here…the tracks that actually helped you become this mammoth sport.” Even Kevin Harvick espouses a similar belief like Dale Jr.

However, other insiders of the sport hold different views. They want NASCAR to go international.

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Helping the sport grow wings

As Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kevin Harvick uphold a traditionalist view, others think beyond. Another section of the NASCAR garage wants a bigger footprint for the sport. The last time it raced outside American borders was in 1998 when NASCAR held the Twin Motegi races in Japan.

International audiences have also been coming to NASCAR. In last year’s Daytona 500, the sport hosted eight drivers from Brazil. Now, Brazil presents a bright opportunity – NASCAR Brazil already operates in the country, with the Interlagos, a 2.677-mile circuit in São Paulo being a popular racetrack.

As NASCAR heads to Mexico for its first outer points-paying race since Canada in the 1950s, Chase Elliott is excited about more expansion. “I know we’re kind of testing the waters a little bit with the Mexico City race this year, but I think the real test would be going overseas, and I think this race would be a good opportunity to do something like that where it wouldn’t be committing to a points race somewhere that’s a long ways away.”

Even Denny Hamlin harbors buoyant hopes: “I’m probably in that boat or really anywhere that helps grow and get some excitement going for the season. I don’t really have a bucket list place where I would want to put it.” So not everybody is on the same boat as Dale Earnhardt Jr. We can only wait and see what decision NASCAR makes for the 2026 Clash.