Dale Earnhardt Jr. gives unpopular opinion on final Brickyard 400 restart and he's perfectly fine with it
The big question coming out of this past Sunday’s Brickyard 400 was whether NASCAR should have canceled the first overtime restart after race leader Brad Keselowski ran out of fuel and headed to pit road just before taking the green flag.
As a result of Keselowski pulling off before the start-finish line, Ryan Blaney became the control car. Blaney, however, was on the outside and Kyle Larson, running P3 at the time, was able to roll up beside him on the preferred inside line. Larson now had the advantage and cleared Blaney in Turn 1 for the lead. Larson went onto win the race, his fourth of the season.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. said on the “Dale Jr. Download” that he didn’t have a problem with how NASCAR handled the restart, nor does he place any blame on Keselowski.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. sounds off on controversy in Brickyard 400
“I honestly feel like it played out the way it should have,” Earnhardt said. “Brad Keselowski is not at fault, they were trying to stretch fuel, they knew they were probably beyond. The interviewed the crew chief, Matt [McCall], and he said, ‘hey, we’re probably gonna run out, but we made our bed and so, we’re gonna go for it.’ It’s their prerogative to bring their car to pit road whenever they choose, and it just so happened they’re coming to the green flag, and he decides to pit. … That’s not fault to Brad for how that played out.
“And per how the rules are written, Blaney’s now the control car and we’re gonna have a green flag. I don’t have a problem with this. I don’t think they should have a timeout and they even said that if they, I guess I think I heard NASCAR say that if they had not thrown the green, they still wouldn’t have allowed them to re-choose. So, it wouldn’t have made any difference other than it would have allowed a moment for Blaney to regroup and replan his strategy for the restart now as the control car. And Larson would have had maybe a moment to think about not being the control car because I don’t know if Larson truly knew in the moment who the control car is.”
Blaney had a big problem with NASCAR allowing the restart to continue. Speaking with his team on the radio, Blaney accused NASCAR of giving the win to Larson, whom he referred to as its “fu*king golden boy.”
“There’s no way they should’ve let that go green,” Blaney said. “That’s ridiculous. They just gave it to him [Larson]. It’s fu*king over, I’m on the top. I ain’t gonna win from the top. Gave it to fu*king golden boy. Son of a b*tch.”
Elton Sawyer stands by NASCAR restart decision in Brickyard 400
NASCAR Senior Vice President of Competition Elton Sawyer, speaking Tuesday on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, admitted it was a “bang-bang call,” but ultimately felt it was best to let the restart play out with Blaney on the outside and Larson rolling up next to him on the inside.
Earnhardt saw no issue in NASCAR’s thought process, seeing that it had minimal time to act.
“Let me tell you something, I’m gonna admit this,” Earnhardt said. “I do not know every freaking rule in the rulebook. Maybe Steve Letarte does. But there’s a few people in the garage that would claim they know every rule. But I promise you, you could test every driver and they’re gonna fail some rules. You get in the car, and you race to the front, and you try to win the race. You don’t need to know every freaking rule. And this is such an obscure thing that I don’t expect all the drivers to immediately be aware of what happens next.
“You got a football field to the restart zone, maybe less, to have all this figured out and understand what’s happening. And so, I would have not had a problem had NASCAR waived off the start. But they usually don’t do that. I mean, if Brad just runs out of gas and pulls to the side like he did entering pit road, that to me is not enough to waive off the start or get in the way of what’s playing out with the green flag.”