After his impressive display in the Bristol Xfinity Series race, Dale Earnhardt Jr. sent NASCAR fans into a frenzy. He revealed that he tried to persuade Jeff Gordon and Jeff Burton to do a one-off Xfinity race like him in 2024.
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But after a few days, Earnhardt claimed on his podcast, the Dale Jr. Download, that in his assumption, Gordon or Burton wouldn’t be open to such a prospect. Junior explained the reason for that to be about an inherent fear in any competitive athlete’s mind.
‘@DaleJr wants to know who you’d like to see come back for a @NASCAR_Xfinity Series race! pic.twitter.com/acEbVVPnls
— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) September 16, 2023
Dale Earnhardt Jr. reveals why Jeff Gordon won’t do a one-off NASCAR race
During the recent episode of his podcast show, Earnhardt revealed how nervous and anxious he was heading into the practice and qualifying for the Bristol race. “I think it would be easier and easier the older you get,” he said as he revealed why he posted about the Gordon-Burton one-off race.
“I think that’s why when I joked about it on social media what retired driver you want to see run a one-off Xfinity race and I teased Jeff Burton and I teased Jeff Gordon, I honestly think that while they’re probably some good reasons why they don’t want to come back and do that, one big reason, they’re afraid of not succeeding. There’s probably some of that fear of not being good enough.”
This fear of not being good enough is the thing that Earnhardt thinks he was dealing with before the race at Bristol. In fact, he described the practice laps as “trying to read a foreign language.” He touched on how close he was to not making the race at Martinsville a couple of years ago. “Just a couple tenths or hundreds or thousands and I would’ve been out of that race. That would’ve been embarrassing as hell,” he said.
“That’s what you’re worried about.”
Gordon told Earnhardt Jr., he hasn’t got it anymore
Now, even though Dale Earnhardt Jr. believes Jeff Gordon or Jeff Burton won’t do a one-off race because of the fear of not succeeding, he claimed he would love to see them both race. “I would love to see Jeff Burton drive a race in a good car one more time. I would love to see Jeff Gordon race one more time at Bristol, Xfinity, something like that, somewhere he was happy to be there,” he said.
“I think they would absolutely do great. I think they’re just like me in selling themselves short. They’re just worried about measuring up or being good enough. “
Further adding to his point, Earnhardt revealed what Jeff Gordon told him after he raced in “a very competitive race”, the Porsche Carrera Cup race at IMS last year. Gordon told Junior, “I ran my guts out to run half a second slower than the guys that were up front.” The 4x Cup champion would also tell Junior that he hasn’t got it anymore, something the latter used to agree with until the last weekend at Bristol.
Junior claimed that as upside down and unprepared as he felt in practice, how he felt in the race was “a complete absolute opposite.”
