Dale Earnhardt Jr. Takes a Skeptical Approach Over Intriguing Martinsville Stat While Countering Denny Hamlin’s Argument That Resulted in Backlash

Dale Earnhardt Jr. has always been an outspoken personality regardless of the event. Over time, he has grown to be better friends with Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin. However, Hamlin had some complaints after the recently concluded Martinsville race, despite finishing fourth. To this, Dale Jr. has the perfect counter with an interesting bit of statistics.

Over the years, Junior has provided some insightful information to the fanbase. Unsurprisingly, he has once again come up with some compelling data to help his arguments.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. counters Denny Hamlin over his complaints

Ever since his introduction in 2022, the Next Gen cars have repeatedly come under scrutiny. It is safe to say; they are yet to convince many. Having said that, rants never tend to bode well with the fans. A similar scenario took place with Denny Hamlin after the Martinsville race in the NASCAR Cup Series.

The JGR driver criticized the Next Gen cars as he found it too difficult to pass using these cars. Naturally, fans did not appreciate this rant as they bashed the 42-year-old. Interestingly, Dale Earnhardt Jr. shed some light on this topic with statistical data. Speaking on his podcast “The Dale Jr. Download”, Junior explains his point of view.

He said, “I was looking at Racing-Reference statistics and I know this is a stat that is widely disputed and criticized. I was looking at green flag passes okay. Both of last year’s races had green flag passes of 674 and 1233. So, those are relatively low when you compare it to races since 2015 at Martinsville. This race this past week had 2026 green flag passes that is the most since March in 2015.”

This surely does not resonate with what Hamlin felt. What makes it more interesting is the count was better than how it used to be earlier with more laps involved. However, this makes it confusing as many of us felt we couldn’t see a lot of racing. Unsurprisingly, Dale Jr. has the answer to this too.

He said, “When we’re watching a race on TV, there are a lot of things happening that you do not see and I’ve watched races on TV, I’ve been in the booth, I’ve been at the track, and even our own broadcast with NBC, we cannot cover every single battle and pass. There was more racing happening than we were exposed to certainly.”

The 2x Daytona 500 winner accepted passing to be a bit of a problem but wants everyone to have faith in the stats. Junior said, “We knew what was happening up front nobody’s passing the leader, that’s a problem alright but maybe there was a lot of great racing that we didn’t get exposed to through the broadcast.

“And so just I’m asking people to have a little Grace in with the idea that yes there might have been a lot of passing in the field that we didn’t witness, that we didn’t know or realize, maybe.” While that is Dale Jr.’s say on the topic, fans, and drivers have had their own opinion.

READ MORE – Dale Earnhardt Jr Believes “Highly Disputed” Demand Made by Hendrick Motorsports & Backed by Denny Hamlin Is a Distant Reality

However, the JR Motorsports owner did find a major problem with NASCAR’s short-track package after Martinsville.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. has a suggestion for NASCAR

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While Junior didn’t quite believe the green flag passing was an issue, he certainly opened up about what was wrong with the short-tracking package. In his recent podcast, he went on to discuss this in detail.

He said, “The number one thing that I believe is the biggest problem with the short track package in a track like Martinsville is the shifting. If I was in charge of that [changing the package] decision I would be working right now to get rid of all shifting at ovals, there is no need for us to be shifting a gear at any oval race track.”

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However, Dale Jr. knows that practically it is a long-term change to take place. Had it been that easy, it would have already been implemented. Furthermore, this is where having a single-source supplier hurts the most with the dependency that comes with it. It would be interesting to see what NASCAR does about these rising issues.