Dale Earnhardt Jr. replies with ‘incredible finish of 1980’ NASCAR race to “bad stock car racing” take

One of NASCAR's biggest names, Dale Earnhardt Jr., weighed in on an X (formerly Twitter) discussion between two retired drivers for the category. It all came up when a fan account posted a video from 1985. The video features Dale Earnhardt Sr, Geoff Bodine, and Joe Ruttman battling for the checkered flag in North Carolina.

In response to that video, Mark Martin, NASCAR Hall of Fame class of 2017, replied that he couldn't believe people say those races were boring. Not moments later, Landon Cassill, also 13 seasons as a Cup Series driver, replied to that by saying that he didn't know what to make of those videos, for cars back then didn't have the 1,000 HP people think are needed nowadays.

They both started a back-and-forth discussion that ended when Dale Earnhardt Jr., son of the original video's protagonist, posted the following video from the 1980 World 600. No caption was even added by Dale Jr.

In the video, Darrell Waltrip was looking for his third straight win at The World 600 in Concord, North Carolina; which is now known as the Coca-Cola 600. Benny Parsons, in the #27 for M.C. Anderson Racing tried to deny him the three-peat and eventually succeeded in doing so.

"Waltrip is finding the inside, he pulls up, he's itching along, they're in the lapped cars, Waltrip goes back to the outside... and across the line. Benny Parsons has upset the oddmakers today, they said he couldn't do it. Parsons just pulled it off. Waltrip settling for second, listen to this crowd," said the original commentator in the video (min 6:34 onward).

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Dale Earnhardt Jr. also has history with The Coca-Cola 600

Three decades after the battle shown in the fan's account, Dale Earnhardt Jr. had his own drama story in Concord, North Carolina. The 2011 Coca-Cola 600 was filled with cautions (14 total), Matt Kenseth led for 103 of the 402 laps and ended in a green-white-chequered finish.

This was originated by Jimmie Johnson losing his engine with four laps to go. While most drivers saw this as an opportunity to go down the pit lane, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kasey Kahne tried to make it to the finish line with whatever fuel they had. Unfortunately for Earnhardt, his #88 car ran out of fuel entering turn 4 and was overtaken by Kevin Harvick.

Dale Jr. went winless in the Charlotte Motor Speedway during his 19-year stretch in the Cup Series. Nevertheless, his is one of the most emblematic across the category winning 26 out of the 631 races in which he ran, and two Xfinity championships, in 1998 and 1999.