Disappointed, Dale Earnhardt Jr. Sounds the Alarm on NASCAR’s Survival at Short Tracks in One Sentence

The Bristol Motor Speedway race is one Cup Series fans always anticipate, known for its intense action. The spring race, for example, saw extreme tire wear that baffled even top drivers, forcing NASCAR to issue extra sets mid-race, where Denny Hamlin’s tire management led him to victory in a thrilling event.

However, the recent Bristol eliminator turned into a Kyle Larson dominance. Leading 462 of 500 laps, Larson set a record for the most laps led by a Hendrick driver. While HMS celebrated, fans were left disappointed by only 8 lead changes compared to 54 in the spring race, with even the likes of Dale Earnhardt Jr. questioning NASCAR’s short-track package.

NASCAR’s failing short-track package

After Kyle Lasron took the lead on lap 38, nobody could challenge him. It was almost impossible for cars to pass each other. Hence, those who stayed at the top stayed there, and the ones who fell behind could not catch up. This is also one reason why the retiring Martin Truex Jr. had his championship hopes cut short. After starting 4th, MTJ finished stage 1 in P4 and then stage 2 in P2. However, post a speeding penalty in the pit lane, he was pushed at the back of the pack in the 24th position. Eventually, he ended his race too in P24, never getting a chance to improve his position and keep his playoff hopes alive. It took many by surprise that his car could not even pass some backmarker teams.

The race had NASCAR Journalist Jeff Gluck call the authorities out for a failed shirt track package. “It was a total letdown. It was just such a disappointing night because everybody was so excited for it.” Even Dale Earnhardt Jr. agreed with Gluck.

Emphasizing the same, in the recent podcast episode of Dale Jr. Download, Junior also said, “I heard Jeff Gluck on the Teardown this week, this cannot be okay. I feel pretty confident that NASCAR is looking at this and saying the same thing. I do not see short-track racing surviving this, if they don’t find some solution. And it’s not out of the question to think that in just a few years the Martinsville and the Bristols are going to be really hanging on.”

The short-track package of NASCAR hasn’t just failed in the recent Bristol race, it’s been a downfall since the introduction of the next-gen car. In the 2022 Bristol race, only three drivers led 430 laps, The trend continued in 2023, when again just three drivers dominated the race by leading 431 laps out of the 500. And this is not just the case with Bristol. Look at the first Richmond race, out of the 400, 372 laps were just led by two drivers.

The same was the case with the second Richmond race, where Austin Dillon wrecked Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin to victory. This was quite literally the only thrilling part of the otherwise mundane race. Again, only three drivers led 339 of the 400 laps. According to Dale Jr, short tracks are becoming increasingly unpopular, and NASCAR needs to act fast to solve the problems. The rising questions have NASCAR open up on the matter.

NASCAR on the unentertaining Bristol race

The way the two Bristol races produced different results has even NASCAR baffled. After the first Bristol race, they felt to have perfected the short track package. However, Kyle Larson’s dominance and the elimination of veterans such as MTJ and Brad Keselowski, who just could not gain track positions, have NASCAR back to square on. Eton Sawywer dwelled on the Bristol events on SiriusXM NASCAR radio.

He said, “What we didn’t have is tire wear,” Sawyer said. “We’ll dive into that with our meetings today with our folks at Goodyear to see what maybe they have been able to come up with over the last couple of days in their meetings. Obviously, we were disappointed as a company for our fans. Those are things we’ll learn from, and we’ll figure out what happened and get that corrected as we go forward.”

Sawyer further noted that NASCAR needs to act on the mistakes: “I am disappointed too, I’m not sure why they got the result they got. Why the tire did what it did? I’m not confident we know what to do it. Just five years ago we were all begging for more short tracks. It was a hashtag trending on social media and now nobody wants to go to one. Now nobody wants to see one on the schedule next week. What a travesty.”

According to him, these things happen; there are ups and downs in racing. However, he is positive that NASCAR will rectify the mistakes with the upcoming short-track races. “We just need to figure out what happened and how we’re going to correct it and move forward because we have had some really good short track racing, as well as road course racing, this year. Goodyear’s tire has really contributed a great deal to that,” he added.

What did you think of the recent Bristol race?

Did it bore you too?