Dale Earnhardt Jr. reacts to controversial caution at Atlanta

Dale Earnhardt Jr. did not understand why people were upset with NASCAR throwing a caution flag at the end of the Cup Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Sunday. On Dale Jr. Download, Earnhardt explained why he was “unbothered” with the caution that led to Christopher Bell getting the win.

“There was a ton of conversation around this,” Earnhardt said, “but I didn’t understand it.” Earnhardt then talked about NASCAR throwing the caution at the duel at Daytona but held back at the end of the Daytona 500. It’s been like this throughout the first two weeks of the season, and Earnhardt said that it’s a “rubber band effect between NASCAR trying to make a good choice and the fan reaction to it.

“Honestly, I was totally unbothered by how the Cup race ended,” Earnhardt said about the Atlanta race. “I don’t not have eyes on the back straightaway to know if somebody’s sitting broadside in the racetrack, but I’ve seen enough things in the 30 years I’ve been around this sport to know if there’s even the potential of that it’s deadly. We don’t even need to have that conversation, and we don’t even need to make it guesswork.”

Dale Earnhardt Jr. is ‘unbothered’ with the Atlanta caution

Earnhardt added, “It’s a human choice, I’m leaving it up to the people in the booth, I do not love every choice they make, but in that scenario, Denny [Hamlin] said it best, safety prevails. …I just don’t think we need to make too much of an uproar because we got to choose the safe logical route. Could we have the conversation (of) does that just extend overtime if a caution comes out after the white flag? Sure. We’ve had the conversation, it’s not a new one. There’s probably good reasons why NASCAR didn’t choose to do that or doesn’t do that. I was unbothered by the finish of that race.”

The Ambetter Health 400 at Atlanta Motor Speedway went into overtime, and a wreck involving Josh Berry happened during the final lap. Bell was in the lead when NASCAR threw the caution flag, which led to him earning his 10th Cup Series race.

It made sense for NASCAR to throw the caution, but people were angry because the same situation happened at the Daytona 500, and no caution was thrown. We’ll see if the same thing happens when the drivers compete at Circuit of the Americas (COTA) this Sunday.