Dale Earnhardt Jr. gives hot take on Xfinity Fastest Lap, giving extra point to driver

This season, NASCAR and Xfinity are introducing a Fastest Lap award that will give one driver in each race a bonus point. Cup, Xfinity, and Truck Series races will all award a driver for the fastest lap. That has Dale Earnhardt Jr. excited.

In the past, NASCAR has awarded drivers for leading the most laps. Other forms of motorsport have similar reward structures, including fastest lap awards. This will add a new wrinkle and more strategy to all races.

With the news out there this week, Dale Earnhardt Jr. talked about the new rule on the Dale Jr. Download. He is a big fan.

“So, if I’m hearing this right, Xfinity will have a fastest lap award in Xfinity Series and Cup and Truck, and whatever driver runs that lap, the very fastest lap of the race – I think it’s amazing,” Earnhardt said. “I miss, I do miss most laps led bonus. Even leading a lap, bonus.”

During the conversation with his cohorts, Dale Jr. continued. He told stories about how excited his former crew members were to win those most laps led and fastest lap awards back in the day.

It didn’t give points in Earnhardt’s day, but crews could earn a nice bonus for having the fastest lap of all of the cars who led a lap in a race. Earnhardt likes seeing that come back in a way.

“I love this!” he said. “I think these type of little things that drive competition or push our competitors to achieve is really cool. And as we know, and I know the fans joke about this when we say in our broadcast, ‘Every point matters,’ they joke about that because we say it over and over. … So, this is a point that’s out there for these guys to try to strive, to accumulate. You could win multiple of these and that could really make a difference in seeding for the playoffs or even making the playoffs.”

Dale Earnhardt Jr. has been around NASCAR for decades. He has seen things come and go. To see him so stoked about the NASCAR Fastest Lap makes me stoked about it.

The 2025 NASCAR season is stacking up to be a good one. There are a lot of storylines to keep an eye on. New rules like the Xfinity Fastest Lap. There are new tracks, old tracks, new drivers, and old drivers – a little bit of something for everyone.

Coming off an Xfinity Series championship, Dale Earnhardt Jr. is looking forward to getting back to it again. Will his JR Motorsports organization win another title in 2025?