Dale Earnhardt Jr. calls out NASCAR to 'have these same sort of penalties' over retaliation incidents

NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt Jr. is the latest person to offer his advice backed by years of experience in the NASCAR Cup Series to the governing body regarding driver reprimands. The JR Motorsports owner spoke about the penalties handed out to Noah Gragson and Bubba Wallace Jr. in light of recent on-track incidents.

The 48-year-old was critical of the sanctioning body's inconsistency in dealing with separate incidents in similar scenarios with regard to Gragson's penalty at Road America. While Wallace Jr. was suspended for one race weekend in Miami, the Xfinity Series driver was only fined driver and owner points along with monetary fines for the team and driver.

Wearing his NASCAR fan hat and not his Xfinity Series team owner hat, Dale Earnhardt Jr. spoke about how Noah Gragson's penalty was not the correct course of action. The 48-year-old elaborated on the Countdown to Green pre-race show last weekend and said:

“As an owner, I’ve had drivers suspended races for this exact same thing. But I’ve seen some things this year that have been inconsistent. I’ve seen some drivers retaliate. I don’t care about the speed of the track, the size of the track. Retaliation. You’re trying to change the mentality going forward for not Cup drivers. We’re talking about Truck drivers, Xfinity drivers. Have these same sort of penalties. Hey, I own Noah’s car, and I was surprised that he wasn’t sat out for a race.”

Noah Gragson's incident involved more than 10 cars that were caught between him and Sage Karam and resulted in multiple penalties for the driver and Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s team.

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Dale Earnhardt Jr. surprised by Noah Gragson's penalties at Road America

Dale Earnhardt Jr. further elaborated on how the two-time Daytona 500 winner was surprised at how the governing body did not penalize Noah Gragson as he expected. On The Morning Drive Show on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, Earnhardt Jr. elaborated:

“Kind of surprised that NASCAR didn’t penalize him, I think that NASCAR doesn’t want to over-officiate the races, but I think in some situations there’s some things that do cross over a line and I felt like that was definitely one of those situations where had I been in the booth during the race I think I would have had to bring Noah to pit road and hold him there for a while. So I was a little surprised because I feel like the precedent has been set in the past.”

Earnhardt Jr.'s experience across various avenues of the sport, and has been consistent in his verdict of different incidents throughout his analysis of the sport.

NASCAR will go live from Martinsville Speedway this weekend for the final Round of 8 race.