Dale Earnhardt Jr. uses Shane van Gisbergen, Matt Tifft getting kicked in face as plea to NASCAR
When it comes to NASCAR, aggression and physicality is the name of the game. Dale Earnhardt Jr. thinks there has to be a line. There were a couple of things that happened in the last week or two that led to Earnhardt speaking out.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. has been through many iterations of NASCAR. Throughout each era, physicality on and off the race track has been a thing.
But is there a way to tone it down and still keep the same fiery sport we all know and love? Earnhardt seems to think so.
“Like that fight with Matt Tifft. Matt gets kicked in the face, they gotta handle that guy,” Earnhardt explained on the Dale Jr. Download. “He needs to not be at the racetrack for a long time. The guy who kicked Matt should not be allowed at a racetrack for a long time. No questions asked. I’m sorry, that’s the way that goes. Matt, ASA has a rule, don’t go into somebody else’s pit. Matt will get penalized, he is getting penalized for going into that pit. That’s a rule, I’m not going to change my rule because Matt got kicked in the face. Sorry for Matt, don’t go in that guy’s pit.”
Over the years, the drivers’ self-policing has been good and bad. There are tradeoffs. Dale Earnhardt Jr. would like to see NASCAR maybe get more involved.
“NASCAR tries to stay out of the, ‘Well we don’t really know if he meant to wreck the guy. We can’t get into the grey area of assuming that was intentional.’ But maybe they need to,” the Hall of Famer continued. “Have some sort of, hey, if you’re involved, you’re guilty. But that’s tough. That’s tough to govern.”
Dale Earnhardt Jr. points at Shane van Gisbergen as example
Of course, Dale Jr. comes at this topic as a former driver, a current team owner, and owner of the CARS Tour series. So, he has a very unique perspective from many different sides.
When he looks at NASCAR, it makes him think of a driver like Shane van Gisbergen and how much different the Cup Series is from his old Supercars series.
“Look at SVG, right? They have such strict rules in Supercars, that he got to Cup racing and he’s like, ‘Damn these boys run through you, they bump you around, they push you around.’ He’s like, ‘We can’t do that at Supercars, we’re not allowed to touch each other. We gotta learn to get around a guy without f***ing, it’s a penalty, like encroachment if you bump into another car.”
Shane van Gisbergen has definitely stepped things up in aggression. He got bullied at COTA by Austin Hill. Then at Sonoma, Portland, and elsewhere, he was doing the bullying. He was even putting the bumper to Chris Buescher in the Cup Series at Watkins Glen.
Is that a good change or a bad one?