MOORESVILLE, N.C. (April 11, 2018) – There was plenty to talk about after the weekend just past at Texas Motor Speedway, and much of it sounded like Week 10 of the NFL season.
Balky pit guns ate up a lot of time on the Dale Jr. Download, Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s eponymous Dirty Mo Radio podcast, and so did an unfortunate video featuring a NASCAR official issuing an ill-timed fist-bump to a member of Kevin Harvick’s team on pit road.
That in and of itself is not a problem, as NASCAR is a family sport and everybody knows everybody else. What made it a big topic was the fact that it was captured on video...just after NASCAR had announced there would be no penalty on Harvick’s team for a suspected pit-road violation.
That brought boo-birds out of the woodwork, and NASCAR did not have the better of the exchange, from teams, observers and a LOT of race fans. Earnhardt Jr. put it in perspective.
“There’s video of them watching the team and the official having a pow-wow,” he said to co-hosts Mike Davis and Matt Dillner. “That’s not a good look. I think the blame really lays on the official in that instance. You can’t have an official high-fiving the coaches on the sideline, if they overturn a penalty or something. The responsibility for being professional in that situation is on the official.
“If I’m a NASCAR official and some guy from another team puts his fist out to fist-bump me, I’m going to feel weird about that, especially in the middle of competition,” he continued. “They had just not called a penalty on them, and a day later they are saying, ‘hey, we should have penalized them.’ It just looks bad.”
That said, Earnhardt Jr. summed up thusly: “There’s nothing to it, NASCAR busts everybody’s ass the same,” he quipped. “They might miss a lot of calls, which is fine. They can’t catch every call on pit road. He’s an official...act like an official.”
That led to the second most-talked-about topic from the weekend: universal pit guns. That was also not a particularly good look for the sport, when the guy that runs second spends more time running the NASCAR-issued pit equipment through the mud than he does talking about the race.
“It’s going to be interesting to see how that plays out through the year,” Dale Jr. mused. “They’re (teams and drivers) going to push back hard on that, and it’s not just one guy. That will be effective.”
Even Joe Gibbs, who doesn’t say much at all as a rule and even less if it’s somewhat controversial, had things to say about them.
“Coach Gibbs doesn’t make anything up and when he talks I think it’s important to listen,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “Gibbs (the race team that bears the coach’s name) spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to develop one of the best pit guns that we have ever had in NASCAR. They had a clear advantage. It is tough to say, ‘I now have to use this common gun...it’s not something I trust, not performing well enough for me to trust it. I spent all this money and it’s all for nothing. We’ve got all these awesome guns up in the storage unit that we can’t use. I’ve got to take this gun that I don’t trust, don’t believe in and don’t know whether it’s going to work or not to the track.’
“This push toward getting NASCAR to make some changes...I know NASCAR is taking it serious...they don’t want to have these problems. This push from Harvick, the crew chiefs, and not just Harvick’s crew chief, is really going to be effective in getting NASCAR to move fast.”
Among the other topics for the Dale Jr. Download show included a somewhat difficult day for Goodyear—and the teams--at Texas, the proposed reality show involving NASCAR drivers and their wives, Dale Jr.’s first mock race broadcast over the weekend and Amy’s baby shower.
To hear the whole thing, go to www.dalejr.com and click the Dirty Mo Radio button, or download it from Apple Podcasts or SoundCloud.