"Just pure driving": When Dale Earnhardt Jr. compared a JGR rival's talent to his Hendrick teammate in 2010

During a 2010 interview, Dale Earnhardt Jr. shared his take on who the most talented driver in NASCAR was at that time. It's worth mentioning that in 2010, Earnhardt Jr.'s teammate at HMS, Jimmie Johnson, had won four Cup titles in a row. In fact, Johnson would also emerge victorious in 2010 as well.

But when journalist Jeff Gluck asked Dale Earnhardt Jr. about the most talented driver in NASCAR, the #88 driver named Johnson alongside one other driver previously associated with HMS.

"The most talented driver in the sport is...it's either Jimmie (Johnson) or Kyle (Busch), probably. Jimmie, I've been around him and in certain situations and seen his car control. Same thing with Kyle. Kyle gets in Trucks, Nationwide – several cars that drive differently – and is fast. Even going from car to car in the same weekend doesn't seem to really faze him. He just jumps into things and can make it work. Kyle's probably the better raw talent, just pure driving. Jimmie is really intricate in his thinking process on the track."

Earnhardt said that Johnson was 'really clever' and witty in his remarks, which is something that translates to his driving as well. He added that the #48 driver was 'smart and quick' in his decisions behind the wheel.

It's worth mentioning that while Jimmie Johnson was already a four-time Cup champion by 2010, Kyle Busch was just establishing himself as one of the all-time NASCAR greats.

Until the 2009 season, Busch had won 16 races at the Cup level.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. wasn't a fan of this NASCAR road course in 2010

In the same interview with Jeff Gluck from 2010, Dale Earnhardt Jr. also revealed the NASCAR racetrack he deemed as 'the worst.' For Junior, it was the road course of Sonoma which he didn't like.

He claimed that racecars in NASCAR at that time weren't meant to go left and right. Junior further mentioned that at Sonoma, drivers can't really make a pass and end up running 'over the top of each other' as they 'wreck the shit out of each other' in order to gain position. He described:

"It's fun if you get lucky and not get wrecked. But you normally get run over and get pissed off at people that are actually pretty good people, you know? It pits us all against each other. I grew up racing ovals, and I'm a purist in that form. I just think we ain't supposed to be f**kin' running them kind of tracks, you know what I mean? (laughs)

It's worth mentioning that throughout his career at the Cup level which spanned almost two decades, Dale Earnhardt Jr. never won a race on a road course.