Dale Earnhardt Jr. calls for NASCAR to make changes at Dover, Bristol: 'I know how much we're missing'

Dale Earnhardt Jr. is calling for NASCAR to make some changes to tracks like Dover and Bristol, hoping they return to their former glory.

During the latest episode of the Dale Jr. Download, Earnhardt Jr. raved about the venues, and how exciting the race was there before they changed to a concrete racing surface. While Earnhardt Jr. understood, he harkened back to the memories he has of terrific racing on asphalt at Dover and Bristol.

“Dover and Bristol. Those two race tracks are great tracks, I’m a big fan of both. They have two things that I love about a race track, and one of them is very steep, steep banking, and they’re relatively short. Dover’s a mile, and Bristol’s a half-mile. So, usually the steep banking is reserved, at least back in — when I was much, much younger, the steep banked race tracks in NASCAR were reserved for the mile-and-a-halves and Daytona and Talladega, so having a very steep banked short-track was very compelling,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “Bristol, when it was asphalt, was magic. It seemed like it was something that you would never be able to replicate. There were insane, insane races, on that asphalt. Now, when they went to concrete, because they had a lot of problems with the track tearing apart. They had a repave. They ran the next weekend after the repave. Rather warm conditions. They raced the Xfinity race during the day, and cars were tearing up the race track during practice and during the Xfinity race. Just a lot of problems. So, they just said screw it, ‘We’ll concrete this race track.’

“They did the same thing at Dover. Repaved Dover. Had a lot of problems with the track tearing up. Big holes, loose gravel, big problems, and they said, ‘You know what, screw it, we’ll concrete it.’ So I hated that. I hated that they took those two race tracks, that were super, incredible, magical race tracks, and put concrete down, and they’ve never been the same ever since.”

As you can tell, Earnhardt Jr. has been disappointed with the major changes to Bristol and Dover since their respective repaves, but it isn’t simply a case of sour grapes. He made some compelling arguments against concrete tracks, and why they don’t hold a candle to asphalt.

“Concrete, when you pave a race track or a strip of road or anything, it’s consistent, smooth. There may be some bumps or imperfections, but it’s one strip, one ribbon of asphalt, all the way around. When you concrete anything, you have to grind, or cut these cracks in it, to allow it to expand and contract with its temperature throughout the year, or else it will crack and bust, right? So those joints, sort of bow up, like an untreated deck on a house. If you’ve ever drove on a stretch of interstate that’s concrete, your cars like bouncing over these bumps. That’s the way the cars go around a concrete race track,” Earnhardt Jr. added. “As you build air pressure, they start literally bouncing off the ground. I used to call Goodyear’s tires basketballs when we’d go to Dover and Bristol. They’d get so mad at me for complaining, for describing their tires in such a way. I was like, ‘These things suck. They’re basketballs!.’ I think, you know, concrete just isn’t as good.

“I know, I can go to Nashville, and I can go to Dover and I can go to Bristol and I can see an amazing race there today. We will. We’ll see great races at those race tracks. But I know where the potential is, as they were asphalt. I know how much we’re missing.”

Perhaps NASCAR would be well served to listen to Dale Earnhardt Jr. on a matter such as this, as concrete has turned Dover and Bristol to simply ordinary race tracks over the last decade and change. Who knows what the future holds, but a change is well needed, if current drivers share the same sentiment.