Dale Jr finished 28th in Budweiser’s return to the racetrack with the #8 car at the South Carolina 400. Roaring through the pack from a 37th-place starting position, Junior fought through the field and put himself in second behind eventual race-winner Treyten Lapcevich, but with 30 laps to go, a mechanical issue on the #8 car’s fuel pump held its driver back from scoring a top-5 finish. 

At several moments during the race, Dale Jr. found himself clashing with a notorious loose cannon who’s been ruffling feathers across the NASCAR community—18-year-old Truck Series rookie Conner Jones. Known for his fiery temper, Jones recently made headlines for another outburst at Florence Motor Speedway. However, last Saturday, Dale Jr. made it clear he wasn’t going to tolerate any nonsense on the track.

Dale Jr brake-checks Conner Jones after on-track clash at Florence

Conner Jones isn’t doing himself any favors in the stock car racing world. The Fredericksburg, Virginia native has gained a reputation for aggressive driving and a combative attitude, stirring controversy across nearly every series he’s raced in—from ARCA to the CARS Tour and the Truck Series. His antics have consistently drawn the ire of fans and competitors alike. Most recently, at the Homestead Truck race, Jones intentionally wrecked fellow driver Matt Mills, sending him to the hospital after tensions between the two escalated earlier in the race. The incident led NASCAR to suspend Jones for one race, marking yet another blemish on the young driver’s burgeoning career.

This weekend, he showed out again, in a blatant display of unnecessary frustration. Some short-track bumping-and-banging between himself and Mason Diaz set the stage for some ugly actions. With 86 laps to go, as Dale Jr. almost made his way into the top 10, a big wreck ensued behind him, throwing a wrench into the race for a few minutes of track clearance. Unsurprisingly, Jones and Diaz found themselves to be a part of the melee. Once their cars became stationary, both drivers got out and exchanged blows with each other. Track officials had to separate the brawling duo. As the tempers cooled, Jones could continue his race, while Diaz had to retire early because his car had suffered too much damage.

But Diaz wouldn’t be the only one losing his cool at Jones that day. As Dale Jr told his co-hosts on the most recent episode of the Download, “We were in the middle of three and four, The red #2 is on the outside of me, and he’s struggling a little bit. And so, when you see somebody struggling, everybody’s like, ‘Get by him! Get by him! Get by him! Hurry, hurry, hurry, Get by him!’ Because that guy’s going to try to fill the next hole on the bottom, and then he’ll get rooted up by some. This is the process. It’s kind of funny because we’re all like a bunch of guys trying to shove into a revolving door.”

“So I’m trying to get by this guy,” continued Junior. “He’s on the outside. He’s fine. I’m going to roll through. The guy behind him that we all pinned… He got impatient I think, and turned that guy a little bit, got three-wide or something… So now, I’ve got somebody on my right rear, and then #2 is to my outside, a little further up the track.” And that was exactly when Conner Jones tried to ruffle the feathers of a 50-year-old racing legend. In his own words, “Conner Jones pops me in the bumper in the middle, three and four, and slid me up a little bit… And I got tight rear-hooked by that guy in the middle. And that guy hits the #2, and the #2 wrecks…”

By this point, Dale Jr was still trying to understand what had happened behind him. He asked his team, “Hey, did I just cause a wreck?” Indeed, it seems he had, but he was more “mad at Conner.” and, “tried to brake-check Conner into (Turn) One” for his part to play in the incident. “I wish he would have knocked his damn radiator out,” raged Junior. At this rate, Conner Jones will only make more enemies than friends, if he’s aspiring to be a full-time stock-car racer. And if there’s one thing that you need in a sport like this, it’s people you can count on. The 18-year Truck Series hopeful has talent, no doubt. But his antics make him a very hard-to-like individual. This will contribute to his declining popularity in the overall NASCAR picture.

The sport’s most vocal stakeholders are already calling for stricter consequences against Conner Jones, and that’s not a promising development. However, the young driver’s outburst was merely a footnote in a race that drew criticism primarily for FloRacing’s broadcasting issues at the South Carolina 400.

FloRacing finds solace after South Carolina 400 stream fail

Trending

Kelley Earnhardt and Denny Hamlin’s Fiancee in Awe as Kyle Larson’s Mother-In-Law Enjoys Special Day

Vulnerable Tony Stewart Details Wife Leah Pruett’s NHRA Dedication With Surprising Childbirth Reveal

“People Forget We Have…500 Employees”: JGR President Breaks Silence on Joe Gibbs’ Infamous Ban Failing to Protect Cup Stars

Martin Truex Jr’s Reliance on Joe Gibbs for His Daytona Dream Could End in Shambles With NASCAR’s New Rulings

From the stream cutting out to audio issues and grainy graphics, everything that could go wrong did go wrong with FloRacing’s broadcast from Florence Motor Speedway. With nearly 44 Late Models on the track, one might expect the chaos to unfold during the race itself. Instead, the gremlins struck the internet, disrupting the live feed and turning this into one of the most unique events of the stock-car racing season.

At some point, the power outage hit the broadcast booth, leaving lead announcers, Eric Brennan, and Blake McCandless voiceless for a pretty minute. To counter the unnatural error, their partner James Pike took up commentary duties from atop a trailer in the infield, all by himself—a sight for the ages. In the end, FloRacing pulled off the broadcast, battling any issue that arose accordingly. But it wasn’t all Flo. As Dale Jr explained this Monday on the Download,  “Flo…is the front-end of the broadcast…But the producing, the editing, the directing – is all NASCAR Productions… Flo and NASCAR Productions worked together to bring this broadcast to you. I don’t think that they anticipated how stressed and over-stressed that system would be before the race started.”

“The track’s internet quit… and apparently Plan B was not working well,” concurred Dale Jr. “This is a facility that manages probably anywhere from 1500 to 2000 on the great night. They have what they need in terms of the Internet and all those things… I don’t think they could have prepared for what they were gonna have in terms of how much the whole system would be loaded by not only the fans that were there—if anybody was using the Wi-Fi—and all the staff, people piling up onto the internet service.” After all, technology and its nuances are as unpredictable as any stock car race. But beyond all that, the 32nd edition of the South Carolina 400 will be one for the history books, although maybe not for Conner Jones. He could really use some anger management for his advances.