Dale Earnhardt Jr. calls no stage breaks at Sonoma, other road courses 'frustrating'

NASCAR made the decision to do away with stage cautions at road course tracks in 2023 — a move which was on full display in Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway. Speaking on a recent episode of his “The Dale Jr. Download” podcast, NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt Jr. said he was left uninspired by the move.

“I know that the product on the road courses has had similar struggles like we’ve seen on the short tracks… [although] it’s easy to pass, they all run the same lap time,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “Every lap, the whole field’s within a half a tenth or a half a second of each other. So if the top-10 are literally matching lap times if not just a little bit different, there is no passing. They don’t even catch each other. It’s a little frustrating…

He added: “Particularly in a race which could use some action, it’d [stage caution] be good. If the product on the track were better, I wouldn’t care. But the product on the track at the road course was so dull that taking out that stage caution — it just was a weird deal… I damn sure don’t think it made the racing or the race or my experience watching it any better.”

Earnhardt Jr. went onto say the ending of the stages felt “anti-climactic” and lacking in drama.

“It was a little anti-climactic for the end of a stage,” Earnhardt Jr. said.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. wonders if NASCAR could add an endurance race like Le Mans

NASCAR successfully completed the 24 Hours of Le Mans Sunday in their first running of the endurance race since 1976.

Earnhardt Jr. took notice of the event, and wonders if there will ever be an endurance race in NASCAR. He made the case on his podcast, citing the evolution of the Next Gen car.

“I think it would be the coolest freaking thing,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “Daytona road course and you could convince me of any other track, it doesn’t have to be Daytona road course… 12 hours, all of the Cup teams out there and even the Xfinity teams [or truck]. You can have 70 roughly 80 cars on the track for a 12-hour race…

“It’s definitely not out of the question to take the current Next Gen car and run a 12-hour race with it. Doug Gates will tell you it’s not out of the question from a motor standpoint… If you can accompany it with the Xfinity or the [Craftsman] Truck [Series], if that’s even possible for that series, man, how cool would that be?”