Dale Earnhardt Jr. criticizes NASCAR charter flights, near disaster: 'Near f*cking touch and go'

NASCAR‘s trip to Mexico City was largely viewed as successful. There were, however, some issues leading up to race weekend.

NASCAR arranged a charter service for the entire industry to get from the Charlotte area to Mexico City. One of the planes, which Cup Series race winner Shane van Gisbergen happened to be on, experienced an issue on takeoff. As a result of the subsequent travel delays, NASCAR had to adjust the weekend practice schedule.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. made the trip to Mexico City to call the race on Prime Video. Earnhardt talked about the travel issues on the “Dale Jr. Download,” describing the plane incident as “f*cking touch and go.” On top of that, Earnhardt’s travel was delayed as his plane was stuck in maintenance in Singapore.

“The charters were not up to par. Not up to standard, I guess for what you would expect,” Earnhardt said. “They had some issues. Our plane was stuck in Singapore maintenance. Why is the plane that I’m going to be on with 300 people in Singapore? What is this charter company that we’re dealing with? You had a plane have a mechanical issue that I heard was really f*cking touch and go.

“The plane that blew the engine was pulling the nose up to take off when that happened and they barely got that thing stopped and safely got everybody off. It was really close to being really severe.”

NASCAR exec talks logistical issues of Mexico City

Sunday was the first Cup points race held outside the United States since 1958. You knew there would be some challenges. But “you can’t cut corners” on some stuff, Earnhardt said. Ben Kennedy, NASCAR’s executive vice president, chief venue & racing innovation officer, admitted “the logistical planning wasn’t perfect.”

“You can’t cut corners with stuff like that,” Earnhardt said. “Listen, I would not know where to start to try to put something together for an entire industry going somewhere. I like the thought of everyone flying together, but we’ve got to be willing to invest — I don’t want to insult NASCAR. I know they busted their ass to make this happen.

“It was a successful race weekend. We had an awesome experience on Saturday with Daniel [Suárez] winning and then a great race on Sunday. Everybody got home safe. Did they learn some lessons? Absolutely. Should they do it a little different next time? Absolutely. Will they? I think so. They learned a lot.”