“You Deserve More”: Denny Hamlin’s Crew Chief & Dale Earnhardt Jr. Butt Heads Over Bristol Racing Product

The recent Cup Series playoff elimination race that was held in Bristol under night lights did not end up pleasing everybody. It had few lead changes and fewer leaders with Kyle Larson dominating the field to take point-position on 462 laps. How the tires sprung a surprise by not falling off heavily as they did in the spring race was yet another bump in the road.

The lack of parity and the unexpected tire issues have left people discussing the urgent need to improve the short-track racing product once again. The topic has been debated ever since the introduction of the Next Gen car in 2022 and the Bristol race just added more fuel to it. It is at this juncture that racing icon Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Chris Gabehart found themselves at loggerheads on X.

Dale Jr. had recently expressed, on Dale Jr. Download, that short-track racing might not survive if NASCAR fails to find a solution to making races more entertaining – both from a driver and fan perspective. He said, “I am not sure why they got the results they got or why the tire did what it did. I am not confident we know what to do about it. Which sucks, man.”

“Because just five years ago, we were all begging for more short tracks. It was a hashtag trending on social media. And now, nobody wants to go to one. Now nobody wants to see one on the schedule next week.” As sensible and reasonable as his words are, the Joe Gibbs Racing crew chief just couldn’t align himself with them. And he responded to an X post, from Jeff Gluck, that mentioned the video.

Gabehart and Dale Jr. exchange opinions on the short-track racing product

Gabehart believes that the racing product is an issue, but not one as deep as people are making it out to be. He wrote, “All the doom and gloom is a little thick and aids in perpetuating the problem. Could it be “better?” Yes. Has it been “bad” by a lot of validated eye test metrics of the past? No, not really. Does our society sensationalize nearly everything now? Yes. That’s not helping either.”

Such a response could offend someone in Dale Jr.’s place. But the icon took it in great stride. The popular driver responded by stating that his opinion was formed based on the race that the No. 11 team had and the post-race reactions of Gabehart himself. He also acknowledged that he was someone who worried about things a lot and then went on to explain his thoughts.

He detailed how good short-tracking racing helps improve grassroots-level racing and wrote, “The short track product can and needs to improve somewhat. You surely can agree. And it’ll be people like you who make that happen.” This, once again, evicted a response from the chief, who went on to talk about what the goal needs to be for him and people like Dale Jr.

He wrote, “You deserve more. Most of all, I want everyone to know how hard it is to race at the cup level. G7 cars don’t showcase that well enough. Natural cautions should be common at short tracks bc the cars are hard to drive for the world’s best drivers.” He also clarified through another post that Dale Jr. had not watched his post-race interviews wrong and that they were about unrealistic expectations.

The only hope that fans were left with after this exchange was that NASCAR would be watching. Regardless of the severity of the need, it is commonly agreed that the short-track racing product cannot be left untouched as it is. Perhaps such discussions will aid in pushing along the arrival of a solution from the Daytona HQ.