"An unpleasant consequence of going fast": Dale Earnhardt Jr. makes a case for Next Gen car's safety after Corey LaJoie's flip at Michigan

Dale Earnhardt Jr. recently elaborated on his reaction to Corey LaJoie's violent flip at Michigan. After making contact with Noah Gragson during the race, LaJoie's #7 Next Gen Camaro spun, went airborne, flipped, and landed on its roof in the grass.

The camera angles from the incident, both from outside and inside the car, suggested a scary incident for the involved driver. But fortunately, LaJoie escaped unhurt from the wreck.

Following this incident, Dale Earnhardt Jr. gave his reaction to the incident via his X handle and wrote:

"For sure. And cars have been flipping in NASCAR since the beginning. It's an unpleasant consequence of going fast. And we should always go fast," Earnhardt Jr. wrote.

Following this, Dale Earnhardt Jr. elaborated on his opinion of the incident during a recent episode of his podcast "Dale Jr. Download" via DirtyMoMedia on X:

"Cars have been flipping in NASCAR since the beginning. It’s an unpleasant consequence of going fast. And I had a fan react to that, he said, basically, 'Hey everybody don't complain or NASCAR will make changes you won't like at all.' Denny Hamlin even said in comments post-race, he'd rather flip than hit the wall in this car. That makes perfect sense to me. Yes, flips can get violent, yes, people have been injured, yes, people have been killed in cars that get airborne, but the impacts and G-forces you tend to feel in wall contact, the potential is a little bit less in a flip. Heading into a wall, knowing that you're going to hit it at 150mph is more terrifying," Junior said.

Citing Kyle Weatherman's wreck from the Xfinity race as an example and calling it a "nasty hit", the former Hendrick driver said that the aspect of the Next Gen car's capacity to sustain and absorb impact was something NASCAR could work on.

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Dale Earnhardt Jr. spoke about what drivers can do to minimize head injuries in Next Gen cars in 2022

Back in 2022, NASCAR's Next-Gen car, in its first year, attracted a lot of criticism in terms of its safety. There were problems in the racecar that led to notable injuries to drivers like Kurt Busch and Alex Bowman.

During that time, Dale Earnhardt Jr. shared his take on what the drivers could do to better protect themselves from concussion injuries in the Next Gen car. He said (as quoted by "SportsCasting"):

“When I watch these guys race on Sunday, I see a lot of guys with a lot of helmets that got a lot of room between them and the headrest. And I don’t want to really call any drivers out but I’m telling you, if you’re a race car driver and you’re listening to this show, get that helmet out, put it in that headrest surround and look at the room between there and how much your helmet can bounce around in there," Earnhardt said on his podcast.

Earnhardt Jr. mentioned that drivers should get their heads to a place to minimize the impact when the head 'bounces around' in the case of a wreck. He hoped for "tighter parameters" in terms of the freedom drivers have with their headrests to minimize any detrimental consequences.

It's worth mentioning that following the flood of criticism against NASCAR's Next-Gen car in 2022, the governing body seems to have addressed the safety issues. This can be backed by the reduced damage drivers such as Ryan Preece, and more recently, Corey LaJoie suffered from in their violent wrecks.