“They Weren’t a Threat” – Dale Earnhardt Jr Explains Massive Drift in Dynamics With Next-Gen Cars

The NASCAR Cup Series will be at the iconic Indianapolis on Sunday for the third-last race of the regular season. The Indianapolis Motor Speedway already garners a lot of attention and respect from fans all over the world, but the excitement surrounding the race is a bit more than usual.

The one man who deserves the credit is Shane Van Gisbergen.

The Kiwi driver made a statement in Chicago earlier in the season with a performance that took the motorsports world by storm. SVG was debuting in NASCAR with Trackhouse Racing’s Project 91 and he absolutely dominated the rest of the field to win on his NASCAR debut.

SVG will be back in Indianapolis and the prospect of another stellar performance has gotten the NASCAR world excited, including Dale Earnhardt Jr and Mike Davis.

SVG changed how NASCAR fans used to look at outsiders

The co-hosts of the Dale Jr Download podcast were discussing how they were excited to see the ringers perform in a very long time. Dale Jr said that at one point, these ‘outsiders’ did not just come in and dominated as SVG did. NASCAR drivers had undergone enough training to compete with the ringers on road courses, but Shane’s achievement at Chicago completely changed the landscape in one swoop.

On a recent episode, Junior recalled the time when racers like Ron Fellows and Marcos Ambrose would come in and set the standards on road courses even if they did not have a competitive car under them.

“20 years ago we’d have somebody come in, would get in a backmarker [Car], and run top five. Ron Fellows would drive an average car into the top five or battle for the win. Marcos Ambrose even.”

That led to full-time NASCAR Cup Series drivers training extra hard to adapt to the road courses and for the longest time, they have come out on top.

“I mean we have way more road courses on Xfinity and all the drivers that are coming up through are getting much more experience on road courses. There are more road courses on the Cup schedule now. All of our drivers are over at GoPro running laps all week long just doing everything they can to get better at road courses. It’s starting to show.” 

“And so, when the ringers would come, they were normal, they were average, they were marginalized when they would come race with us,” he added.

And then came the Supercars champion Shane Van Gisbergen, dominating the entire field on his debut and taking a comfortable victory at Chicago. Up until that moment, no one really felt like there was any threat from the outsiders, according to Dale Jr.

“Up until SVG dominated Chicago, no one felt like there was a big threat from the outside,” the former Cup Series driver opined. “We have seen Project 91, we have seen F1 drivers… they weren’t a threat.” 

Dale Jr believes that one of the main reasons for SVG’s success was how the NASCAR Next Gen car was built.

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The shift is because of the new Next-Gen Cars, says Dale Earnhardt Jr

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In an earlier episode of the Dale Jr. Download podcast, he mentioned that the new cars were based on the V8 Supercars that SVG has been driving for most of his career.

“The V8 Supercar was the closest thing to NASCAR stock cars around the globe and that got even closer when the next-gen car was built. NASCAR and Steve O’Donnell will tell you they built the NASCAR next-gen based off of the V8 Supercar. So for Shane or anyone to get in that car and feel comfortable makes perfect sense and I think his adaptation to ovals will be even easier due to that than it was for Marcos,” said Dale Earnhardt Jr.

However, Junior has warned SVG to be wary of the pressure of expectations awaiting him when he gets into the #91 at Indianapolis. Speculations about the Kiwi’s future have been in the air ever since Chicago and it is almost certain that he will get a full-time seat in the Cup Series in 2024.

“He needs to go to Indy, lead laps, and challenge for the win. If he runs fifth, that ain’t good enough to warrant all the effort that will have to take place to get him over here in that full-time deal. He will… have challenges,” Junior added.

Indianapolis will give SVG a chance to prove that what he did at Chicago was not a fluke. The Supercars champions will have the pressure of delivering a good performance and finishing at least in the top five.

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