“The Car Can’t Do It”: Dale Earnhardt Jr. Wishes NASCAR Fixes This Problem

Even though the Cup race at Atlanta was one of the best in recent memory, producing a finish for the ages, Dale Earnhardt Jr. still had some complaints with NASCAR. Complaints, not necessarily with a big issue but rather with something about the racing that comes out of this Next Gen car.

He addressed this issue on his podcast, saying, “When you get behind another car and you’re pushing them down the front straightaway, to be able to turn into the corner and to have any kind of a reasonable corner without losing a lot of grip, and losing the nose and having to lift, you have to back off and let the car in front of you get a little bit further away so when you’re driving into the corner; you get a little bit of aero on the nose.”

“You can’t follow them into the corner on their bumpers.”

Earnhardt claimed that when he was racing back in the day, he could drive into a corner right on the back of another racecar in front of him, push it into the corner, or push it through the corner. “Not a chance of doing it with this car,” he said.

But does this behavior from the racecar affect the racing product?

“Yes,” Earnhardt said. “It is a challenge when you’re pushing somebody down the front straightaway, you want to stay locked on their bumper or you want to drive into the corner, and push them up the racetrack and drive under them, drive by them, you can’t.”

The Hall of Famer claimed that one has to lift and allow the air to either get on the nose of the car or pass under the car so they can make the move before the next corner.

 

Atlanta poses some unique challenges for drivers today

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— Dirty Mo Media (@DirtyMoMedia) February 27, 2024

Dale Earnhardt Jr. wishes NASCAR would fix this issue

Speaking further about this subject, Earnhardt mentioned Martin Truex Jr.’s comments where he talked about how in one corner the car is “plowing” and in the next, it is sideways. So it becomes difficult to judge the handling of one’s car compared to the rivals.

This, of course, is a challenge, one that Junior approves of, as he said, “I like the drivers trying to figure out the Rubik’s cube every lap.” But it is also something that he admitted is mentally “so tough” on the drivers.

Earnhardt continued, “I do wish they tone down a little bit about why and how this car loses a ton of grip when following another car very, very close. Because the act of one guy getting to another’s bumper is something that I never want to impede in this sport EVER!”

But the truth is that drivers are finding it difficult to race closely on corners, bumper-to-bumper, simply because “the car can’t do it.” This is something Earnhardt didn’t like.

Yet he was aware that he shouldn’t be complaining after “a freaking insane race” that Atlanta was.