“Old School A** Whooping” – Dale Earnhardt Jr. Not Happy With Diminished Cup Series Fire at Watkins Glen

The ‘Go Bowling at the Glen’ race was the penultimate race of this year’s NASCAR regular season. In a high-speed combat between 36 drivers each carrying their own numbers and colors, we saw one come out on top over the rest: Hendrick Motorsports’ William Byron. The sights of the checkered flag at Watkins Glen marked the end of road course races in the regular season. At this pivotal point, community members have been going over a lot of opinions and thoughts about the recent rally. Sports legend Dale Earnhardt Jr. and JR Motorsports team member Mike Davis were no exceptions.

On the ‘Dale Jr Download’ podcast that they host together, the duo discussed a variety of topics. Prime among them was Dale Jr’s disappointment with the lack of action at Watkins Glen.

Current ways of racing aren’t exciting anymore for Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. believes the lack of excitement was due to NASCAR’s decision to remove stage break cautions at road courses. Talking about the last couple of races at Indianapolis and Watkins Glen, Dale Jr. mentioned how the races went by pretty much with green flags.

He wondered if fans were going to start calling out for stage break cautions to be brought back into the fray. He added that he wouldn’t be someone who hated the idea. NASCAR removed stage break cautions for road courses at the start of the current racing season. This was a move, they believed, would help teams create better strategies and race better.

Dale Jr. expressed how he never supported the idea and did not think it would make racing better. With fewer restarts, NASCAR made strategizing and planning pretty straightforward for driver crews. But this wasn’t something that Dale Jr. seemed appreciative of.

The Xfinity Series racer felt that the complexity of strategizing is what makes racing exciting. He said that with stage cautions, there were three different routes a driver could take to better his position. According to him, the current setup lowers those chances substantially.

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Is Watkins Glen an example of how boring road courses have become?

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Co-host Mike Davis offered a counterpoint. Joking that maybe Dale Jr. has rubbed off on him, he spoke about how he appreciated what had gone down over the last weeks.

Mentioning that he was someone who likes being entertained, he said, “In these two weeks I have found myself appreciating an old-school a** whooping. And I don’t know that it has that with the cautions and the stage breaks; because it just jumbles, it re-racks them right?”

He added that having stage break cautions meant that someone not performing at a good level could come in and take positions from drivers like William Byron and Michael McDowell.

Responding to his opinion, Dale Jr took the example of the Watkins Glen race. Comparing the race with the Xfinity showdown that went on the previous night, he thought that the race at Glen was far less exciting.

Asking Mike if he thought the Xfinity race was a better one, he said, “You still had one car dominate, but you had a lot going on, right? You still had a lot going on. Some good racing. On Sunday, the damn top five in the last 30 laps just sit there and ran two car links apart. You know the leader was a second and a half out in front of Denny and then it was Denny and then… You know nobody could pass.

”

Mike Davis could finally see the point Dale Jr. was making and agreed that this was, in fact, a problem. Whether we will be seeing NASCAR bring back the stage caution breaks anytime in the near future is a heavy question. But right now, the opinion of Dale Earnhardt Jr. must be causing some ripples off in the racing community. As one final race remains in the regular season ahead of the playoffs, all eyes will be on the international speedway at Daytona this weekend for the last confrontation.

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