3 times Dale Earnhardt Jr. called out NASCAR’s shortcomings

Dale Earnhardt Jr. is one of the biggest ambassadors of NASCAR today. He owns a race team, a late-model racing series, and a media company, in addition to running a podcast. According to Celebrity Net Worth, the 50-year-old man has a staggering net worth of $300 million.

Despite being among the front faces of NASCAR, there have been times when the Hall of Famer called out the sport. Let’s look at the three times when Dale Jr. criticized NASCAR for its decisions.

1. Dale Earnhardt Jr. weighs in on NASCAR parking Ryan Blaney

This happened in September 2024 during the playoff race at Watkins Glen International. While vying for a spot in the Round of 12, the then-reigning Cup Series champion Ryan Blaney met with a wreck right on Lap 1, which rendered his No. 12 Mustang unable to drive back to his pit stall. Reports suggest that his steering arm broke completely.

NASCAR did not allow Blaney’s crew to try to fix the issue and canceled the team’s race participation. Needless to say, Blaney was furious. During a post-race interview, he said (via Newsweek),

“Give us a chance to fix it, how are they going to dictate if we're done or not? They have no idea the damage. They said because I couldn't drive it back to the pit box we're done, but if you have four flats you get towed back to the pit box, you can't drive it back. So, I don't know what's going on, why they won't even give us a shot to work on it, but I don't agree with it."

Later on, Dale Jr. revealed his stance on the matter through a post on X. To him, meeting a middle ground between ousting a driver out of contention and allowing the teams to do hurried repairs was absolutely necessary.

“With the current rule there is also no need for elaborate "crash carts" and overloaded haulers full of parts and pieces. I do think there is a middle ground. The clock has teams rushing repairs and sending cars back on the track in dire need of more repairs. These hurried repairs create their own batch of debris cautions as well,” Dale Jr. said.

2. Dale Earnhardt Jr. opposes NASCAR’s broadcasting decisions for 2025

Broadcasting for NASCAR has always been a field job. However, there was news back in October that CW, NASCAR’s new media partner for the upcoming season, is considering going remote. The billion-dollar media giant is likely to call select Xfinity Series races from its newly opened 58,000-square-foot production facility in Concord, North Carolina.

Dale Earnhardt Jr., who has worked closely with NBC’s broadcast team in the past and now is set to work with Amazon Prime and TNT, wasn’t the happiest when he heard the announcement. Replying to journalist Adam Stern’s post about the same, he said,

“I hope they do not.”

3. Dale Jr. demands change following controversial Martinsville race

Several drivers were accused of race manipulation as the playoff race at the Virginian short track neared its end. Among the accused were Bubba Wallace, Austin Dillon, and Ross Chastain. But what happened exactly?

Dillon and Chastain allegedly blocked the field behind fellow Chevrolet driver William Byron, allowing the Hendrick Motorsports driver to maintain his position on the track. On the other hand, Wallace seemed to have slowed down on purpose to allow Christopher Bell (who also drives a Toyota) to grab the 18th spot in a 37-car field, eventually aiding him in making the Championship event at Phoenix Raceway the following week.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. made his thoughts known in an episode of his Dale Jr. Download podcast. He said,

“Everybody in this sport, everyone in this sport has a responsibility to maintain and uphold the integrity of the sport. But, some of us fell a little short this past weekend.”

“This isn’t a new thing at Martinsville. This has happened on the plate tracks for a handful of years. Teams organizing and working together and even practicing together. We literally would say, ‘Don’t pull off pit road if a Ford or a Toyota is in our line,’ and they would get in our line and go, ‘Man, I’m going to go out with the Chevys,’ and we would sit there and not pull off pit road until they would get with their group. It was silly,” he added.

However, NASCAR did act upon the situation. Chastain, Dillon, and Wallace were handed a $100,000 fine each and docked 50 driver points. The owners of their respective teams, too, suffered the same penalty.

Besides that, their crew chiefs, Phil Surgen, Justin Alexander, and Bootie Barker, and spotters, Brandon McReynolds, Brandon Benesch, and Freddie Kraft were banned from the title-deciding season finale at Phoenix.