Dale Earnhardt Jr. uses Dale Sr. vs. Geoff Bodine as example for NASCAR to act against Carson Hocevar

Dale Earnhardt Jr. used a fascinating example from his father’s past as a way to try and teach Carson Hocevar a lesson for his actions in Nashville.

During the latest episode of the Dale Jr. Download, Earnhardt Jr. condemned Hocevar for wrecking Harrison Burton under caution. He simply wasn’t a fan of it, and he believes parking Hocevar for a couple of laps, like Dale Earnhardt Sr. was when he got into an altercation with Geoff Bodine, could’ve solved things.

“Dad and Geoff Bodine had that deal back in the 80s, and it spilled over into a Busch race at Charlotte one day. Dad goes down into Turn 3 and 4 and spins Geoff out, wrecks Geoff. They put Dad on pit road, in the penalty box, for like five laps. Race was over for Dad,” Earnhardt Jr. reminisced. “Now, he didn’t get parked for the day, but he had enough of a penalty that it really, really stung, and I think that would be the only way you were going to get through to Dale Earnhardt.

“You weren’t going to penalize him on a Tuesday or Wednesday and really get him to change his ways. Get him to really, truly think about, ‘Do I need to do this next time?’ Because if you take five laps off the board, from a competitor and someone that’s truly out there trying to do their very best, that sends a message. Maybe it doesn’t need to be five, whatever it is, but that’s kind of how I feel about that.”

While Hocevar was fined and hit with a points deduction from NASCAR for his actions, Earnhardt Jr.’s idea might’ve held more water with the No. 77 wheelman. Regardless, the NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee would like NASCAR to keep it in their back pocket, if Hocevar’s anger appears once again in the future.

“I think I agree, and everybody kind of agrees, that we want to penalize people who are spinning people under caution, and doing things intentionally under caution, and there’s severities and different penalties to levy, depending upon the severity. This wasn’t super bad. It didn’t really cost anybody any problems, except for Burton,” Earnhardt Jr. added. “But again, also you have Hocevar, who has this long history of sort of, a lot of questionable things going on throughout this guys career, so you know, has what NASCAR’s done to this point changed his mindset enough, to get Hocevar making better decisions, I guess.

“I would say NASCAR has fallen short a little bit, in trying to change his mentality. So maybe a penalty during the race, in the moment, is what it’ll take.”

Whether it’s Carson Hocevar or a different driver who makes a boneheaded decision like the No. 77 made last Sunday, Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s punishment theory could work to teach them a lesson in the future. We’ll see if NASCAR implements a similar sanction moving forward.