NASCAR insider reveals surprising call from Dale Earnhardt Jr. after Kansas start/finish line controversy

There were so many great moments from the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season. One moment even confused Dale Earnhardt Jr. Of course, it was the photo finish at Kansas Speedway early in the season.

Kyle Larson and Chris Buescher gave us one of the all-time great finishes in the Cup Series. 0.001 seconds separated first and second place. It was a fantastic race and finish.

While the finish was fantastic, it had its own controversy. It appeared that the start/finish line was painted crooked.

Jeff Gluck of The Athletic was at the track that night. He recalled the controversy on the newest episode of The Teardown.

“There was another controversy in that race because the start/finish line was painted crooked,” Gluck recalled. “NASCAR had to explain, ‘Well, it’s a laser line shooting across the track. Even though the start/finish line is painted this way and it looked like Chris Buescher got there first. The start/finish line itself doesn’t matter because it’s the same technology that they use for the Kentucky Derby.”

So, how does Dale Earnhardt Jr. fit into all of this?

Dale Earnhardt Jr. calls up Jeff Gluck

As Gluck recalled the finish and controversy, he also remembered waiting in the media center. Everyone was eager to see who had won, then there was a wait until Kyle Larson made it to his press conference.

“So, I was sitting in the media center afterwards waiting for the winner to come in. I’m like refreshing Twitter and people are like, ‘the start/finish line is crooked.’ I was ignoring it,” Gluck continued. “My feed was just being filled. So, then I look down and my phone’s ringing, it’s Dale Jr. So, I pick it up, and he’s like, ‘Hey is the start/finish line crooked or not, can you just send me a picture?’ I walk about there and I’m like, I’m just going to go check this out.

“At the same time, NASCAR is walking down from the tower. Jesse Little and Amanda Ellis from NASCAR PR. Jesse’s like, ‘Alright, I know exactly how this works, let me explain this.’ So he walked me through the entire thing. I made a video, here’s exactly what it is.”

Dale Earnhardt Jr. is just like the rest of us. Just a fan at heart. A fan who also has a lot of great connections and can request photos from the track whenever he feels like it. The line ended up not mattering, and Larson was the winner as was originally declared.