“Need Exactly What We Got”: Dale Earnhardt Jr. Believes “Boring” NASCAR Will Benefit From Denny Hamlin-Kyle Larson Confrontation in Big Way

For quite some time, NASCAR fans have claimed that races at the Cup Series level are not as fiercely contested as they were back in the ‘good old days’. For the most part, drivers like Dale Earnhardt Jr., who have been a part of the sport for an extended period beyond their racing career, sided with the fans. But that is changing, and with how the last few weeks have transpired on the race track, things might even be as good as before, according to Dale Jr.

On this week’s Dale Jr. Download, Earnhardt did speak at length on how the Denny Hamlin-Kyle Larson incident from Pocono could fuel more people to tune into NASCAR for not just the races but also the storylines and controversies.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. brings up Dale Sr. to express what NASCAR fans want

Believing what happened between Kyle Larson and Denny Hamlin was exactly what NASCAR fans want, Junior said, “We need exactly what we got yesterday. We need that villain, we need contact, confrontation. When it ain’t there, Good Lord it’s boring. I’m sorry, when there ain’t nothing going, when you don’t give a crap about the two-three guys up there battling for the lead and they are three car lengths apart all day and man letting each other pass and driving by each other cleanly and not even really putting up a fight, I mean, that’s where we were not long ago.”

“This is real, this is authentic, this is literally exactly what I love about NASCAR and maybe this just me – I grew up in the 80s watching dad run over everybody, and we loved it. Hey, he’s catching that guy, watch him put the bumper to his a**. We freaking wanted it, we expected it. And man when he passed them without hitting them it was disappointing”

Junior believes the record Pocono crowd proves NASCAR is doing it right

As for how the fans are liking the NASCAR product, Junior believes the answer is pretty clear, saying, “What I cannot stop thinking about is how freaking good it is right now to be a NASCAR fan and how great the last four weeks have been. That place looked like a 1994 crowd. I retweeted a couple of images from 2019 to yesterday, stark difference right between how many fans were in the infield, the cars parked around the racetrack for the fans that are at the grandstands…”

The above pictures retweeted by Junior confirmed what he was saying – fans are indeed coming back to the true American sport.