Dale Earnhardt Jr. comes clean on his opinions on road courses in NASCAR: "I'm not a favorite"

Dale Earnhardt Jr. gave his opinion on road courses in NASCAR amid Richard Petty's take on road course racing in the modern era. Petty, considered by many as the greatest driver in the sport, criticized the road courses as being different from the essence of NASCAR, which was built on short tracks.

This came after Shane van Gisbergen's win at Mexico earned him a place in the playoffs. Regarding the debate, Petty claimed that the governing body would need to change a few things if this were to be the norm.

Earnhardt Jr. understood Petty's standpoint, as anyone who ever wanted to race in the sport went to a short track locally and ran stock cars or late models. Following this, Dale Earnhardt Jr. was asked whether he believed there were too many road courses on the schedule. It's worth mentioning that currently, the calendar has five road course stops and one street course.

"I think we have a good amount of road courses. I'm not a favorite. I don't like the road courses the most. I don't really, honestly man, I don't really love, right now like, I would say my favorite thing about our sport is probably the Charlottes and the Kansas's. That's what i'm enjoying right now the most. I wish that the short tracks were better cuz that's where my core is. I love good short track beating and banging," Dale Earnhardt Jr. described.

Earnhardt Jr. claimed that some of the things he enjoyed about short track racing were on display at Mexico, because of which he could also be a fan of road courses 'at times.'

Dale Earnhardt Jr. asks Shane van Gisbergen about his progress on ovals

During his podcast, Dale Earnhardt Jr. asked Shane van Gisbergen about his progress on ovals. The Kiwi driver took the sport by storm by winning his first NASCAR race at Chicago in 2023. After that, SVG won three more races in the Xfinity Series in 2024 at Portland, Sonoma, and Chicago.

As for his progress on ovals, Van Gisbergen told Earnhardt Jr.:

"My biggest thing is far off speed and in practice, especially, you know, I'm going to a lot of these places for the first time in a cup car, get out on track, I'm exploring the place. So, you know, I get up to speed on lap 10 of practice. And by then the tires gone. I get to what lap times they're doing, but I've missed that peak. And then qualifying comes around, I've got to go and find a second and a half, and they've only got to find half a second."

Gisbergen added that he has made 'pretty big gains' in qualifying. So far this season, the Kiwi has four finishes inside the top 20 and a single top 10 at COTA.