Dale Earnhardt Jr. is extremely connected to NASCAR. Although he retired from full-time racing in 2018, the Hall of Fame remained involved in sports as an announcer with NBC’s coverage and on its weekly podcast on Dale Jr.Download.
On the latter, he occasionally drops nuggets of information that cannot be found anywhere else. This happened recently when he was asked a question about Xfinity Series and its lack of identity. Junior’s response completely surprised those present in the studio.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. Reveals NASCAR Talked About Racing SUV
Dale Earnhardt Jr. interviews some of the biggest names in motorsports on his podcast, probing and finding the answers to questions fans have been asking for years. But it’s during the “Ask Jr.” part of the podcast when the roles are reversed and fans ask him to answer questions. Occasionally, his responses include some breaking news.
This happened during a recent episode when a fan asked him about the Xfinity Series, its lack of identity, what Earnhardt had mentioned several weeks earlier, and what changes he would make. Double Winner of the Daytona 500‘s response provided shocking news that surprised everyone in the studio.
“The Xfinity Series, Truck Series and Cup Series must be important to the manufacturer,” Earnhardt said. “The Truck series is important to the manufacturer because, well, they are trucks. The Cup Series is important because it’s the best elite series and they sell sedans.
“The Xfinity Series has kind of lost its focus. What is its objective for the manufacturer? The pony car thing was cool for a while, but manufacturers obviously aren’t married to selling pony cars every year. They can sell them anyway – the Camaro, the Mustang or whatever. I don’t think the Xfinity series will have a huge impact on auto sales in this market. There needs to be a broader goal for manufacturers or a specific goal for manufacturers to want the Xfinity Series to be there.
He then created a hypothesis of what could happen with the series using series producer Matthew Dilner in his example.
“Let’s see what this series can do for Matthew Motors,” he said. “If Matthew Motors needs to sell damn six-cylinder cars, then maybe that’s what the Xfinity Series should be.” Maybe it’s a four-cylinder. I don’t know. At any rate. SUV. I heard NASCAR float this idea.
“What?” asked co-host Mike Davis.
“Yes,” Earnhardt confirmed. “No kidding, right. Oh my God. I won’t have a store full of SUV race cars.
Earnhardt unhappy with past changes in NASCAR
Earnhardt discussing the changes and identity of NASCAR is nothing new. Late last year, during an episode of his podcast, he talked about the playoffs and how NASCAR had been changing formats regularly, creating an identity crisis.
“When we started something new with these playoffs, we had no brand continuity. No identity,” Earnhardt said. “The playoffs kept changing. And the way that that happened kept changing. And the number of people to accommodate kept changing.
“It was very, very frustrating. I lost a lot of pride. I lost the importance of it. I’ve lost a lot of confidence in that, haven’t I. My passion and love for this whole sport waned a little in those moments where the playoffs kept bouncing to this and that and the other.
Eventually, NASCAR stopped toying with the playoff format, and it has remained stable since 2017. Earnhardt admitted he was happy with the established continuity.
Could this really happen?
Earnhardt’s comment about NASCAR discussing a potential series featuring SUVs seems far-fetched. But the fact that officials have broached the subject suggests that, as unrealistic as it may seem, it’s still a topic of conversation.
One has to imagine that there was a similar exploratory meeting with leaders in the not-so-distant past when someone brought up the random idea of running a road trip through the streets of Chicago.
And here we are.
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