Dale Earnhardt Jr. busts Jeff Gordon chops to Alex Bowman ahead of Nashville Ally 400

Dale Earnhardt Jr. busted Jeff Gordon’s chops when talking to Alex Bowman ahead of this week’s race at Nashville.

The Nashville Ally 400 will showcase Bowman’s new car design with the sponsor and it was concocted by Earnhardt Jr. himself. Of course, the racing legend is quite proud of his design.

He welcomed Bowman into Dale Jr. Download and poked fun at Gordon in the process.

“Alex Bowman’s called into the show, we have a pretty exciting weekend coming up for Nashville,” Earndhardt Jr. said. “Ally has gotten me and you back together to design the race car for this upcoming weekend. We did this a couple years ago. It’s a lot of fun. Especially the year where they let Jeff Gordon try to make an attempt on designing a race car and it was the worst race car I’ve ever seen.”

“That’s my boss, man,” Bowman said. “You gotta be careful man, you’re gonna get me in trouble.”

Earnhardt Jr., the jokester he is, just had to throw that jab at Gordon.

“I know you won’t chime in on that one, but I gotta give Jeff a hard time,” Earnhardt Jr. said.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. always has jokes

Despite the Earnhardt Jr. jokes regarding Gordon, Bowman is excited to be partnered with Ally.

“I’m my own person. I certainly, you know, followed in the footsteps of you and it wasn’t easy and Jimmy is not easy either,” Bowman said. “But Ally has been so cool to just embrace who I am and it’s been so much fun working with that. It’s been a really good time. We’ve had a lot of really cool initiatives and a lot of really cool paint schemes along the way. 

“So excited about this one. Obviously the Ally 400 is a huge weekend for us. Been a rough one over the last couple of years. But you know, I’m excited to get there this year.”

The duo already has a special relationship, as Bowman may have never received his shot at Hendrick Motorsports if not for Earnhardt Jr. backing him throughout the twilight of his time in NASCAR.

After a demoralizing 2023, where Bowman missed time with an injury, the No. 48 wheelman has bounced back quite nicely, even with chatter regarding his future at Hendrick Motorsports. He’s accumulated ten top-ten finishes, and he even finished P2 in the Daytona 500 to teammate William Byron.

That win has eluded Bowman thus far in 2024 though. Perhaps with a little help from Earnhardt Jr. in Nashville, at a track where his sponsor will also be the namesake for the race, he’ll be able to get the job done on June 30.