“Why Is That Even a Conversation?”: Dale Earnhardt Jr. Pushes Back on People Questioning the Existence of the NASCAR All-Star Race

The NASCAR All-Star race has been a staple fixture in the Cup Series since 1985. Winning this event has been seen as a respectable honor and added a good amount of clout to names. However, in light of the recently introduced Promoter’s Caution and a few other concerns, fans have been pushing to make the race obsolete. Dale Earnhardt Jr. is firmly against this idea.

The popular icon said on Dale Jr. Download that the race has to be fixed if it doesn’t satisfy fans, and not removed from the calendar altogether. He had strong reasoning for this.

Dale Jr. said, “I’m like, why are we doing that? Why is that even a conversation?” he asked and continued, “Why don’t we just fix it? The All-Star race is an awesome opportunity for us to try to learn something.”

He believes that the race should be about trying out new ideas and racing concepts that people bring, considering how there are no points involved. While he didn’t specify what must be tried out in particular — leaving that to the experts — Dale Jr. made his opinion pretty clear. If nothing else, the All-Star race should at least serve as a test session for NASCAR and the teams.

So, why are fans hating the event in the first place? For one, the Promoter’s Caution. It is a rule that allows Speedway Motorsports and its CEO Marcus Smith to throw a caution at any point in the race subject to certain conditions.

The idea of letting an individual wield such power has not settled well with many. Lack of meaningful stakes, questionable formats, and the lack of action are some of the other reasons.

Why teams rejected an interesting pitch from NASCAR

Understanding the fan sentiment, NASCAR had tried introducing yet another format that might have potentially struck up interest from the crowds. The promotion had wanted to try a “Run what ya brung” format this year. This would have let teams bring whatever adjustments and combinations that they deemed fit on their cars as long as they passed safety inspection.

If it was greenlighted, creativity would have run rampant in the race shops. Unfortunately, teams did not want to go ahead with the idea since it involved spending too much from their pockets.

Denny Hamlin broke it down bluntly, “But I’m going to spend a million dollars just on parts and pieces that we haven’t even developed anything for yet. So, just in parts and pieces to replace all this that we’re going to modify, we’re going to spend a ton of money, and it only pays 1 million to win.”

He estimated the cost to build such a car would run more than $2 million. The risk-to-reward ratio simply doesn’t make sense for the one shelling out the bucks. Perhaps, fans would have come to love the event if this had worked out.