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via Imago

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NASCAR’s most anticipated event this year, the Chicago Street race has finally concluded with a dramatic finish from debutant Supercar champion of Trackhouse Racing claiming the victory at NASCAR’s first-ever street course. With Kiwi Supercar sensation, Shane Van Gisbergen stealing the show from his fellow Cup drivers in their own backyard, the focus has shifted to the Aussie V8 Supercar league and its similarities to the American Stock Car racing counterpart.

Following SVG’s stellar win at Chicago, veteran Dale Earnhardt Jr enlightened the community on how both disciplines share similar fundamentals. Speaking on his popular, Dale Jr Download podcast, Dale Jr dissects both racing leagues, revealing their intricacies and similarities, stating what makes the V8 drivers special.

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Debates and disputes are nothing new for racing fans. But following the Chicago Street race, a new debate has loomed over NASCAR nation and it’s the debate over NASCAR and Supercar Championship racing of Australia and New Zealand. While both disciples have their own similarities and dissimilarities, following Sunday’s race, Hendrick Motorsports ace Chase Elliott issued a controversial and honest statement when he said he was going to Australia to let his Aussie Supercar friends know how bad Cup drivers are.

With Dale Jr’s co-host, Mike Davis, bringing Elliott’s claim to this week’s episode, the veteran shared his thoughts about Elliott’s claim. Though the 48-year-old doesn’t know a lot of racers from the Aussie promotion, Dale Jr reflected on the close similarities both promotions share, V8 Supercar is the closest thing in any form of motorsport to NASCAR so their car, especially with the next-gen was kind of based of V8 Supercar and when you look at the chassis and components and all that it’s all very very similar they run on different tires,” said Dale Jr. 

With the organization developing its Next-Gen cars based on the Supercar platform, it definitely had a significant impact on the race as SVG, whose inexperience in wet conditions, was quickly overwhelmed by the familiarity these cars offered as he passed car after car, tearing through the field.

However, the JR Motorsports co-owner revealed he was not surprised to see the driver tear through the competition, citing the example of 2004, 2005 Supercars champion, Marcos Ambrose who transitioned into NASCAR, saying, “There’s a couple of things that are unique but honestly if you are coming, what’s the most similar to NASCAR, I’d say its V8 Supercar so it’s not surprising for any of those guys to get in our cars and adapt really quickly but we also saw Marcos Ambrose come over here and adapt right.”

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Furthermore, Dale Jr mentions the degree of sportsmanship and the level of competition these V8 Supercar racers have grown out of.

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Mentioning the great Marcos Ambrose’s success in NASCAR, even conquering the oval tracks, the veteran gets into the psyche of what makes these people so special in a car. Though these drivers are fiercely competitive on the track, there’s a sense of sportsmanship and class they display says Dale Jr mentioning one of the most dangerous races in the world, the Bathurst 1000, a 1000-kilometer annual race in NSW.

“You’d be impressed by you know not only the gentlemanship and how clean they race each other but also at the same time it’s very very aggressive and they really just push each other to raise the bar,” said Dale Jr. “They want to be challenged to the sort of insane extreme and there is a unique sort of mentality Australians and New Zealanders to push themselves into these uncomfortable dangerous scenarios,” added the veteran.

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Furthermore, Junior revealed the mentality of these racers bring to the track that makes them exceptional drivers to constantly push. Je said, “That mentality just works perfectly in racing and motorsports.”