Dale Earnhardt Jr. weighs in on Kyle Larson, new NASCAR DVP policy affect on Darlington finish

Dale Earnhardt Jr. shared his thoughts on Kyle Larson and the No. 5 team taking advantage of NASCAR’s new DVP policy during the Darlington race. On Dale Jr. Download, Earnhardt explained why he liked Larson getting his car fixed and returning to the race after a wreck despite being away for two hours.

“This is not a new problem. This is the way it’s actually been for 70 years up until the DVP policy came into effect. Cars could get out there and do this all the time,” Dale Earnhardt Jr. said. “If they weren’t creating accidents like this, parts were falling off and cutting tires and all kinds of things were happening. Or they were just flat getting in the way and slowing somebody down and creating a battle for a position that would not have otherwise have developed. I love it.”

The reason Kyle Larson took some heat for being on the track at Darlington was that he was accidentally spun by Bubba Wallace during the final laps of the race. That led to the caution, and Denny Hamlin won the race despite Ryan Blaney having the lead before the accident. Larson had nothing to gain by being out there as he trailed the leader by 168 laps.

Why Kyle Larson returned to Darlington track

“Even if you knew there was not a position to gain, your ego and your pride wouldn’t allow you to toss in the white flag,” Earnhardt explained. “Back in my time, that was the driving motivation. You didn’t want a DNF and you didn’t want to quit, you didn’t want the team to quit. You’re looking around you got 8-12 guys that are working on this car, and you didn’t want any one of them to see you give up.”

After the race, Kyle Larson’s crew chief Cliff Daniels explained why he had the No. 5 car return to the rack after two hours of repairs. “Just getting the nose fixed up as good as it was, giving us enough of a data point of how the car was driving that we could do some things to [learn],” Daniels said, per FOX Sports. “I’m not really sure you know [the first time the car requirements for] what NASCAR’s take is on you come back in, you make minimum speed.

“Yes, I know there’s no points to gain [for spots], … but the way our team is built, we certainly want to come here and take the checkered flag. And the other thing we were learning, too, was with the pit cycles. Just different air pressure settings and a couple of the things we were doing with the heights of the car.”