Dale Earnhardt Jr. pinpoints new-model car as factor in wrecks at restrictor-plate tracks
Hendrick Motorsports' Dale Earnhardt Jr. made a media appearance today at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. // Jeff Robinson, NASCAR Scene
Hendrick Motorsports' Dale Earnhardt Jr. says that he doesn't expect any changes to be made to the cars following a pair of last-lap crashes at restrictor-plate races this season.
Earnhardt Jr. says that those crashes are simply a product of the current type of racing, which puts increasingly competitive cars in tight packs throughout the events. Roush Fenway Racing's Carl Edwards crashed and slammed into the fence at Talladega Superspeedway earlier this season and Joe Gibbs Racing's Kyle Busch slammed into the wall and then was hit by speeding cars as he slid across the track after an accident last weekend at Daytona.
Thursday during a media appearance at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, shortly before he headed to Chicagoland Speedway for the afternoon Sprint Cup practice sessions, Earnhardt Jr. was asked about the nature of the crashes.
"I think you'll continue to have the wrecks," he said. "Restrictor plates, obviously, everybody here understands that restrictor plates put us in big packs. They make the gap between the best car in the field and the worst car in the field much smaller. And now the COT has even done more of that. The [car of tomorrow] has really got everybody in a box. And so we're all basically out there competing in the same thing.
"I can't do anything or I can't be any more creative than the next guy. We basically are all going to run the same lap time. So we're going to race on top of each other, you know. We're going to race on top. When we're on top of each other, we're going to run into each other more often and you're going to see a lot more wrecks like that. I don't like wrecking. I had a pretty good car in the [Daytona] 500, I had a pretty good car in the [Coke Zero] 400 this year, I had good cars at Talladega the last couple years, but I've wrecked them, just about all of them. You know, it's frustrating, you know."
What does he think should happen? Earnhardt Jr. said he wished there was a way for a guy with a really, really good car to get away from one that was not as good. The way racing is right now, he can't really escape the other cars.
He'd like to see that change.
"If my car is driving good, I can go ahead of the guy whose car ain't driving good," he said of what he'd like to see. "I'm not stuck behind him or watching him cause a crash in front of me. So, you know, the racing is exciting. Crashes are exciting. Crashes are intriguing, whether anybody wants to admit it or not. You know, 50 lead changes and all those things are great. I don't see it changing. I don't see NASCAR changing anything. They will build the fence higher and stronger before they do anything to keep us from running into each other.
"So I think that they made the cars safer because they knew we were going to keep crashing. So I don't think they'll change it. I mean, that's just - not a lot of people - not the right people ain't complaining about the racing, and that's the fans. You know, they think the racing is good, and however they want it is however we need to give it to them."
