Frustrated Dale Earnhardt Jr Feels “Embarrassed” by NASCAR’s Star-Studded COTA Outing Turning Into a “S**tshow”

It was a memorable win for Tyler Reddick at the Circuit of The Americas last Sunday. However, the late cautions and three overtimes grabbed all the attention post the race. The race saw multiple restarts with drivers lunging into each other in Turn 1 and by the time Reddick won, it had become a bit too messy for the spectators. NASCAR was criticized severely by drivers, experts, and fans, and recently, Dale Earnhardt Jr too joined the bandwagon in bashing them.

The COTA race was a big event this season, especially considering the iconic racers taking part in it. Formula 1 world champions Kimi Raikkonen and Jenson Button took part along with well-known IMSA driver Jordan Taylor and 7x Cup champion Jimmie Johnson. Given the eyes on the Cup Series race, it did not lived up to expectations. No wonder Dale Jr lost his cool talking about the race.

Dale Earnhardt Jr slams NASCAR for spoiling the show at the COTA amid overtime chaos

As it is, NASCAR is very much under the radar given the number of late cautions in the 2023 season. Even more so, considering the impact it has had on the outcome of the races this year. It has become agonizing for many to watch and Dale Jr is surely one of them.

Speaking on the latest episode of The Dale Jr. Download podcast, Junior expressed how he hated late cautions as a driver and still dislikes them as a broadcaster. He said, “I don’t, I still hate it [late caution]. The moment the caution comes out, I have the exact same emotional reaction that I did as a race car driver.”

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The 48-year-old explained why the late cautions were particularly annoying at COTA. He said, “It’s frustrating because there was such a great pure awesome event happening and playing out, and it gets interrupted and turns into a s**tshow.

And we were on the grand stage. We had all kinds of people all across the world watching us because of who was in the race, IMSA drivers, F1 drivers, F1 champions. We got all kinds of new eyeballs on us. We basically invited all these new guys to the party and then threw a big fight at the end.”

Dale Jr further added why over time the race turned out to be a major turn-off. He said, “So it’s a bit embarrassing and frustrating because damn it, it was this race I didn’t want to end until it wasn’t, and then, I was like, ‘Damn! Will this ever end?’

‘Damn, don’t do this again.’ […] Because I was just ready for it to be over with because it was taking the shine off of what had been a really nice day.”

Junior did really speak on behalf of the fans here. Interestingly, his good friend Denny Hamlin came out voicing the same opinion, but interestingly, he has a solution in mind.

Denny Hamlin tries to help NASCAR save face after the embarrassing scenes at the COTA

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Like Dale Jr, Denny Hamlin has never shied away from expressing his opinion regardless of how others feel. This time around, he too expressed his disappointment after what happened at COTA but also suggested a solution to think about.

Speaking on the Actions Detrimental podcast, Hamlin said, “I personally think, it’s a bad look [COTA events]. It shouldn’t take an hour to run the last two laps of the race, green flag laps of the race. I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say maybe we should explore single-file restarts.”

The Joe Gibbs Racing driver is one of many to criticize NASCAR for the late cautions last week. However, with plenty of solutions offered, it will be interesting to see if the governing body takes them into consideration. Should such a scenario happen once more, surely that will trigger an unbelievable outrage.

READ MORE – “Don’t Put Me in a Box” – Dale Earnhardt Jr Goes Against Kyle Busch as He Sides With the Drivers Amid COTA Wreckfest