Dale Earnhardt Jr. is surprised by what NASCAR fans thought about the Atlanta race

Dale Earnhardt Jr. recently found out that the majority of the NASCAR fans on X (formerly known as Twitter) deemed Atlanta a good race. Only eight races remain till the Round of 16 opener kicks off at Darlington Raceway on August 31.

As usual, The Athletic’s Jeff Gluck set up a poll for the NASCAR fam on X, asking if they thought that Atlanta was a good race. 91 percent of the fans voted yes, which took the Hall of Famer by surprise. Re-sharing the results of Gluck’s poll, he wrote,

“Hot damn 91% rn.”

Dale Earnhardt Jr.

@DaleJr

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Hot damn 91% rn

There are several reasons why the fans are going gaga over the 260-lap event. It was everything they expected from a points-paying race. Wrecks, three-wide passes, and shattering a 44-race winless drought; the Quaker State 400 saw it all.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. witnessed the race first hand as he was inside the TNT booth, working as an analyst alongside lap-by-lap commentator Adam Alexander, and color commentator Steve Letarte. Marty Snider, Danielle Trotta, and Alan Cavanna were the pit reporters for the day, with Shannon Spake hosting NASCAR’s studio programming alongside Jamie McMurray and former Xfinity Series driver, Parker Kligerman.

The NASCAR Cup Series will return next week at the Chicago Street Course for the third consecutive year. Named The Grant Park 165, the 75-lap event will be televised on TNT Sports (July 6, 2 pm ET onwards). Fans can also listen to exclusive radio updates on MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

An upcoming Xfinity race (18th of the 2025 season) is also scheduled for the weekend, i.e., Saturday, July 5. JR Motorsports, owned by Dale Earnhardt Jr., will field four cars in that event: the No. 1 for Carson Kvapil, the No. 7 for reigning series champion Justin Allgaier, the No. 8 for Sammy Smith, and the No. 88 for Connor Zilisch.

Fans can watch the race on CW, 4:30 pm ET onwards, or listen to its radio coverage on MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

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Dale Earnhardt Jr. silences haters with a 100 percent win rate

Last week at Pocono, Dale Earnhardt Jr. was tapped as the crew chief for Connor Zilisch, driver of the No. 88 for JR Motorsports. Zilisch’s full-time crew chief, Mardy Lindley, stayed out as he had to serve a one-race penalty due to loose lug nuts found on Zilisch’s car a few weeks back at Nashville.

Although some called it a publicity stunt, Dale Jr. knew exactly what he was doing. Assisted by his Prime Video broadcast partner, Steve Letarte, Mike Bumgarner, and Patrick Martin, the two-time Xfinity Series champion contributed to Zilisch’s win in a meaningful way.

Speaking of the same, Dale Earnhardt Jr. said,

“I felt like I really did have a role today that was probably even more than I anticipated," Earnhardt said. "But I did get a big assist from out of the gate. Mardy, Pat and all the guys on this team, we all sat down at meetings early in the week, understood what we needed to accomplish, had an idea in a game plan, right?”

Dale Earnhardt Jr. concluded by saying that if his team needed him to crew chief ever again, he would be up for it. After all, he is now a race-winning crew chief with a 100% success rate.