Dale Earnhardt Jr. calls Joey Logano, Ross Chastain 'biggest d**kheads,' explains why it's a good thing

Defensive driving has been taken to the next level with the advent of the NextGen car in the NASCAR Cup Series. It’s been an advantage for certain wheelman, like Joey Logano and Ross Chastain, in the eyes of Dale Earnhardt Jr.

During the latest episode of the Dale Jr. Download, the two-time Daytona 500 winner gave his opinion on why it’s easier for Logano and Chastain to mirror-drive than other wheelmen in the Cup Series. They possess a certain skill that some in the Cup Series simply don’t, and that’s just the way it is.

“The reason why Joey’s good at it, the reason why Chastain’s good at it, is because they’re willing to be the biggest d***heads out there,” Earnhardt Jr. explained. “It’s not engrained in all of us to be selfish, and be purely selfish, but you have to be. I always tried — speaking frankly here, I want to be everybody’s buddy. Everywhere I go around the race track on the weekend, I want to be friends with Chase [Briscoe], I want to be friends with everybody.

“When I raced, I wanted to get out of the car and go, ‘Hey man, that shit was fun. You good? Hope you liked racing me.’ Now, we go to Daytona and Talladega, and I would have to tell myself before I got in the car, ‘You’re going to have to be an asshole today,’ because it wasn’t engrained in me to go out there and drive like that.

“I didn’t do things intentionally like, ‘Screw you guys,’ and run people into the wall, ‘I don’t care about your race,’ but I knew, to be good at Daytona and Talladega, I kind of had to be a bit of a jerk. I think, the way the Cup car is today, you have to be a jerk, everywhere you go.”

While Earnhardt Jr. only deployed that racing style at Daytona and Talladega, he appreciates Logano and Chastain willing to go the extra mile and race their way on every track in the Cup Series. It may not endear themselves to the competition, but it’s been successful over the course of the NextGen era.

We’ll see if more drivers follow suit, as Joey Logano and Ross Chastain continue to find success. In the meantime, Dale Earnhardt Jr. won’t be pulling his punches, as he tries to deliver the best NASCAR discourse week-in and week-out in his return to the booth over the course of the summer.