Dale Earnhardt Jr.: Austin Dillon contact was 'way too much,' but drivers are not 'rough enough' on short track

After Austin Dillon had his automatic playoff spot taken away following last week’s race at Richmond, Dale Earnhardt Jr. made it clear NASCAR made “the line” clear. But he also had some thoughts on the way the drivers race on short tracks.

Dillon and his spotter received unprecedented penalties after last week’s wrecks involving Denny Hamlin and Joey Logano. However, Richard Childress Racing said it plans to appeal the decision – and Earnhardt made a compelling case for them to do so.

But when it comes to the lead-up to the wrecks, Earnhardt pointed out how clean the race was. It’s something he wants to see change on short tracks, too. Just not as much as what happened at the end.

“Was there any contact in that race up until that point? None,” Earnhardt said on his show. “I don’t think they’re rough enough. But I don’t know how you get there. What happened on that last lap was way too much. But everything else for 490-some laps was way too little, for me, for my taste, for my appetite.

“When we go to short-track racing – and we saw this at Bristol earlier in the year when they had the tires that were wearing out and they couldn’t drive as hard as they wanted to and they had to take care of the tires and allow drivers to be able to get to their back bumper in the middle of the corner. And we saw guys pushing each other out of the way for the lead. Fifty laps, 150 laps into the race – not even halfway, and they’re using each other up a little bit. Just enough. Like, hey, I want through. Get out of the way here for a second. If you’re going to slow down, I want to go faster. That’s what my appetite for short-track racing is, and that race had none of it up until that final moment.”

Dale Earnhardt Jr.: ‘Majority’ of Richmond lacked roughness

Earnhardt was addressing a question to Elton Sawyer during a media availability about full-contact racing and possibly taking that away. The former NASCAR great said he wouldn’t have asked that question in that spot, but he reiterated he wants the drivers to be a bit rougher.

“I think, while that’s not a terrible question, that’s probably not what I would be asking Elton in this moment because the drivers, I don’t think they’re hard enough on each other over the course of the journey,” Earnhardt said. “And man, I would love it if they were a little rougher.

“But you know, that’s just me. That’s personal preference. And again, I think that last lap was too much for my appetite. But boy, it was lacking the majority of that event.”