Dale Earnhardt Jr. explains frustration, flipping off Riley Herbst during Bristol Xfinity race

At one point during this past Friday’s Xfinity Series race at Bristol, Dale Earnhardt Jr. gave Riley Herbst the bird.

The two battled for position, with Herbst getting the better of Earnhardt riding the top. But going into one corner, Herbst decided to run the middle, which is no man’s land at Bristol. That opened the door for Earnhardt to jump to the top and make the pass on Herbst. Earnhardt flipped off Herbst, and as he explained on Tuesday’s “Dale Jr. Download” podcast, the NASCAR Hall of Famer was agitated that Herbst didn’t let him go earlier as the leaders pulled away from them.

“Me and Riley raced around each other quite a bit, and there were a couple times where he got the better of me, either by lane choice or on the restart,” Earnhardt said. “And I had just maybe passed him, or I knew that I could get by him. And as we would start running after a restart, he was pretty quick for a couple laps, and then I would get quicker, and I’m working underneath him, trying to pass him. We get down in the corner and get kind of up to his door. He pulled kind of straight over and over into corner. That is totally fine. I am not annoyed by that. I’d love to pass him, but I am not annoyed by anything he’s doing.

“And then something happened where we come off the corner, I’m underneath him, he clears me, we ran a couple corners and then he went into the turn and didn’t go to the top like he’d been doing. He just goes into the middle. And so, I’m like, ‘Alright, I’ll just jump to the top.’ And I go right around and I’m like, ‘I think he let me go there. I’m not sure, but why did he do it that way?’ And that was what frustrated me. Like, we just ran 20 fu*king laps here. You’re just being stubborn as hell. … I was so mad… and then a couple corners later I was like it’s fine. It’s not a big deal.”

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Earnhardt, making his first Xfinity Series start of the season, finished seventh, while Herbst finished 13th. That is the final time fans will see Earnhardt behind the wheel in NASCAR until at least 2026, as he stated before the race he has no plans to race in 2025.

As for the bird, Earnhardt believes it’s well within his right to dish out one per race. Any more than that, and you might need some self-reflection.

“I think you get one bird throughout the race,” Earnhardt said. “If you’re flipping off multiple drivers, it might be you. You might be the problem.”