“Control of the Future” – Dale Earnhardt Jr. Presses on Importance of Upcoming Short Track Test

Improving short-track racing happens to be one of the things that NASCAR is hell-bent on improving. Over the last couple of years, we have seen some short tracks disappear from the schedule. But we have also seen the reintroduction of vintage short tracks like North Wilkesboro Speedway.

Although, the main problem that still exists is with the overall racing. That would be because of the state of the current Next Gen Cars and how the short track package behaves out on the racetrack. But as of now, NASCAR has been working towards that very thing, as of late, NASCAR has a short track package test coming up at Richmond Raceway soon enough.

Speaking about the importance of the test, former NASCAR driver, Dale Earnhardt Jr. took his time to explain the importance of the said test.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. elaborates on the importance of the short-track test

During his podcast, Junior stated, “We mentioned it last week on the show, and I joked a little bit about how the future of short-track racing is on the shoulders of these testers, the drivers that are gonna be doing this test.”

“All of ’em are in the perfect frame of mind. They totally understand the mission.”@DaleJr called each of the drivers who will be testing at Richmond to make sure they all understood how important this is for NASCAR’s short-track future.

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He added, “The test was supposed to be on Monday and today. But with the weather, they decided to change it to Richmond and it would be rescheduled. I forget what day it is. But now, I went and called. I got on with Jeff Burton’s advice. I called each one of these drivers and said, Hey, man, you still got to do this test. Most of them, yes, one or two. No.”

“And I told’em, I was like, ‘Hey, y’all, you know, I’m confident in you I believe in you. I think this is going to be a great opportunity for NASCAR. You’ve been picked and chosen for a reason. And understand, you know, it is it carries a lot of responsibility. You’re going into a test with a totally unique agenda. You’re not going there for yourself. This isn’t about you, this isn’t about your team. This isn’t about getting your car to turn in the middle.”

“This is about trying to get NASCAR short-track package to the next level. Right? We love it at the mile and a half. We loved it this past weekend. But when we go to Martinville, we don’t love it, all right. When we go to Richmond, we’re not in love with it… We want to be excited about it… You want to have confidence that you could take that car to any short track and it put on a hell of a show and we don’t have that right now.” 

Junior urges drivers to focus on gathering the data

Subsequently, Junior also mentioned what he told the drivers that were going to participate in the upcoming test. He apparently tried telling them to stop focusing on themselves, rather than just focus on bringing in the data, which was the ultimate goal of the test, to begin with.

Further into the conversation he stated, And so I told these guys are like Man, you guys really are in control of the future in terms of what this car can do it a short track so always be thinking about that. You know, and also, it’d be good for all those guys to get together and conversate and communicate with each other before they go. They have a test plan. They know the test plan NASCAR sharing that with them.”

“NASCAR is also showing them the pieces of parts that they plan to use and try at the test. Understand what NASCAR was going to try to you know what that part piece is going to try to achieve. And when that part piece gets bolted on your car, understand what you’re trying to feel from it, what you’re trying to learn from it, what NASCAR wants to know from you. And don’t get competitive. Don’t get out there and start looking at lap times. Don’t worry about your car not doing so good or not getting off the corner. We’ll just try to gather the data.”

If the drivers talking on the short track package test can listen to Junior, that is all that NASCAR would need to successfully harvest the data from the session. After all, this isn’t about the individuals participating, rather the motive is to benefit NASCAR as a whole.