“Pushing in the Corner Is Okay” – Dale Earnhardt Jr Pushes the Blame Away From Joe Gibbs’ Grandson

Unlike the Cup Series events at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Watkins Glen, last week’s Superspeedway race at the iconic Daytona Speedway wasn’t devoid of any action. In fact, the race had all the thrills and frills for a blockbuster regular season grand finale.

It had so much drama that the community was on the edge of their seats as 2 vicious crashes rocked the NASCAR nation, taking them by surprise. While the 2nd wreck was the nastiest of them, the first one initiated by Joe Gibbs‘ grandson got the community 22 years back to the traumatizing event that took their favorite driver, Dale Earnhardt‘s life.

At the finishing lap of Stage 2, the JGR youngster pushed Ryan Blaney into the wall for vicious a head-on collision. While the Team Penske driver blamed the #54 driver for his hasty move, NASCAR veteran Dale Earnhardt Jr backed the 20-year-old as he chimed in with his thoughts about the horrific wreck.

Dale Earnhardt Jr backs the JGR youngster as he opens up about the whole fiasco

The scene was critical. It was a must-win situation for every driver who was in the hunt for the last remaining playoff spot. This included NASCAR’s golden boy, Chase Elliott, and Joe Gibbs’ grandson and Xfinity Series sensation, Ty Gibbs. Looking to make the playoffs in his rookie season, the 20-year-old along with his teammate, Christopher Bell devised a plan to push the #54 above the cutline.

Unfortunately, Bell’s plan to get his teammate higher up the ladder terribly backfired as it got him further down and Gibbs eventually wrecked out at the end of Stage 2. The pressure to make the playoffs induced a sense of urgency in the field as the pack went 3-wide, looking super aggressive. This, however, ended up horribly for the young JGR driver.

Gibbs, who was pushed into the front by Bell, lost control and bumped into Blaney, ticking off an avalanche that collected more than 10 cars in the process. With Blaney getting the worst end, slamming into the wall head first, the pressure was on the youngster who jumped into the fray hastily.

However, instead of berating the 20-year-old, Dale Jr on his Dale Jr Download podcast backed Gibbs.

While Blaney himself did not approve of the young gun’s action, Dale Jr. said, “You know (Ryan) Blaney said on Twitter that it was a bad push you know and so like I’ll take his word for it, I’ll take the driver’s word for it every day, they’re out there driving them cars. We’re now, I transitioned in the wreck from, yeah pushing in the corner is okay as long as you know what you’re doing.” 

READ MORE: Joe Gibbs Snatches Away Grandsons’ Privileges to Boost Playoff Contention for JGR

While Gibbs’ own teammate, Denny Hamlin slammed the Bell’s move as he educated the rookie about the do’s and don’ts, 2-time Daytona winner Dale Jr also got to his point, emphasizing the changing nature of the track.

Dale Jr enlightens the JGR youngster, mentioning the changing nature of Daytona

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Everything we see around us is bound to change, be it people or materialistic things. Everything is bound to time and time is the major factor here as well. Though the JGR duo’s idea failed miserably, the closing laps of the race saw a more experienced adopt the same technique to pull off a solid win.

RFK Racing‘s Chris Buescher and veteran Brad Keselowski did exactly what the JGR drivers did, but the timing of the move was what mattered most. Reflecting on the changing nature of the 2.5-mile high-speed superspeedway, becoming more slick and unpredictable, Dale Jr. took his time to educate the young driver on this very aspect.

He said, “Look, man, we saw the #6(Brad Keselowski) push #17v(Chris Buescher) through turns 1 and 2 on the last lap so pushing can be done, but we’re now at a point where the track has aged and is slick enough to where you damn sure got to be careful, more careful than ever, more aware. You can’t carelessly be bouncing into the front you know back of the car in front of you anymore where you have so much grip before you could. 

WATCH THIS STORY: Dale Earnhardt Jr brings his Xfinity driver down to earth: “Pump the breaks”