“These road courses are just so much fun.” An ecstatic Christopher Bell clarified his emotions after winning at Circuit of the Americas. However, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver also expressed his disbelief. He now owns three out of 11 Cup wins on road courses, which Bell “never in a million years” thought was possible. That is probably because of COTA’s new flavor, which enthralled Dale Earnhardt Jr. as well.

Ahead of the 2025 EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix race, NASCAR revamped the Austin, Texas track. Officials cut down the 3.41-mile full layout into a shorter 2.3-mile national circuit. That created a world of difference for Dale Earnhardt Jr., a veteran driver of the sport.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. emotionally reveals his shift of opinion

Well, road courses on the NASCAR schedule are something new. Traditionally, the stock car racing sport visits oval tracks, superspeedways, or short tracks. Circuit of the Americas debuted in NASCAR only in 2021 and has featured a lot of chaotic racing. Remember Ross Chastain shoving off Justin Allmendinger and Alex Bowman for the win in 2022? So officials opted for a shorter layout although it still had many of the deft moves and passing found in an Elite European series. NASCAR drivers had to navigate through Turn 1 or ‘Calamity Corner’ – but things changed after Turn 6. Instead of continuing through Turns 7-11, cars exited the esses and took hard lefts into 6a and 6b, essentially shortcuts to Turn 12.

As a result of truncating the racetrack, NASCAR also increased the number of laps from 68 to 95. These changes meant the world for Dale Earnhardt Jr., a 26-time Cup Series race winner who could not stand the Formula One-style road course initially. In a Dale Jr Download episode, he vehemently made his emotions clear: “I didn’t want COTA.” He explained further: “I didn’t like COTA…the long track – boring. Cautions take forever. Track limited – bulls—. A bunch of paint, red, white, and blue everywhere. They go up the hill into Turn 1, that was cool – but as soon as they get out of Turn 1, it’s just a big old flat piece of asphalt with paint all over it…It just doesn’t look like a racetrack.”

However, Dale Earnhardt Jr applauded Speedway Motorsports Inc.’s new efforts. “We were struggling as an industry to get Texas right – they reconfigured Turns 1 and 2. It was a brave effort to try to make that track better.” The two-time Daytona 500 winner let out his soaring emotions: “New COTA – f—— awesome, I love it! …I can’t say it enough…They didn’t do nothing but take a f—— mile out of the racetrack…and made it an awesome track! I’m shocked because I would have never thought that I would like it.” Although people expected a wreck fest after Ross Chastain wrecked Chase Elliott on Lap 1, the race turned out fairly clean. Additionally, the shortcut from Turn 6a and 6b into Turn 12 made it easier for fans to watch live.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. is clearly impressed with NASCAR’s efforts to revamp COTA. That is because of the veteran’s old racing style.

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Home is where the heart lies

Every NASCAR driver has a springboard of some sort. They start their motorsports journey somewhere, regardless of where they end up. For instance, Shane van Gisbergen grew up racing karts and motorbikes before transitioning touring cars. But Dale Earnhardt Jr., his journey began on short tracks at merely 17 years of age before he joined NASCAR. He began wheeling race cars in the Late Model Series in his early years, frequenting tracks like Florence Motor Speedway. In 2023, Dale Jr. invested in the short-track CARS Tour along with 2014 Cup Series champion Kevin Harvick, Jeff Burton, and Justin Marks. His objective was simple – to achieve that grassroots feel.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. harped on a similar sentiment recently. While doling out his praise for the reconfigured COTA track, the veteran pointed out how the newer layout resembles his favorite type of racetrack. “I didn’t like it at all and now I love it – it’s like a little short-track road course. All the road courses that we run in NASCAR are relatively traditional links. That is why I don’t love road courses as much as ovals…My favorite type of ovals is the beating and banging short-track style racing…I love the tempers…the cars tell a story when the race is over.”

Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s opinions ring out loud and clear in our heads – he loves the new COTA look. Let us see what verdict he has for the other updated tracks on NASCAR’s schedule.