Dale Earnhardt Jr. fires back at Kyle Larson, Ryan Blaney: 'Nobody's complaining about ass-kicking'

Dale Earnhardt Jr. believes there’s a disconnect between what drivers and fans think when it comes to subpar racing. While drivers believe dominance from certain wheelmen is contributing to fans’ interest dipping, there’s a myriad of other factors that are at play instead.

Kyle Larson and Ryan Blaney were two who made some pointed comments on the matter as the season progresses. On the latest episode of the Dale Jr. Download, Earnhardt Jr. pushed back on that narrative, telling them that most fans don’t mind a good ass-kicking now and then, but there’s bigger issues plaguing the sport.

“There were some comments from some drivers. Larson was one of them, and Blaney was one of them. Listen, there’s been some duds. There’s been like, six or seven duds of a race, up until Texas. Texas was pretty entertaining. But before Texas, we had a stretch of races on Jeff Gluck’s good race poll that was like, 50 and below, and that was real. That was a real concern, from fans. It was genuine complaint,” Earnhardt Jr. stated.

“Somebody said to Larson, ‘Are you looking forward to coming to Kansas after the last several weeks?’ You know, after  how the race has been kind of ho-hum. He’s like, him and a couple of other drivers, Blaney included, were like, ‘Well, if a guy kicks ass, it doesn’t mean it’s a bad race.’ Nobody’s complaining about ass kicking. Nobody ever complained about Larson or anyone else kicking ass and just kicking pure ass all day long. Nobody complained about that. I don’t know where Larson and Blaney are going with that comment, because nobody complained about the ass kicking.

“What we complained about are the things that the drivers were complaining about, and had been complaining about. The car doesn’t race well on short tracks. The car is difficult in dirty air. It’s amazing at the mile-and-a-halves, and so we’re excited to go to Kansas and Charlotte and all the mile-and-a-halves, because it’s good there, but it doesn’t race well in some other areas. We came out of Talladega, and it was, you know, there’s a lot of comments from drivers about how it races at Daytona and Talladega. All the fans just agree with that. That’s all we’re doing, just agreeing with what we’re hearing from drivers.

“We see the race play out at a short track or Talladega, we see a product that we’re not entirely in love with. The drivers get out and tell us why it looks that way and we go, ‘Okay, great. We agree.’ So, I was a little bit confused by that. Nobody was ever really complaining that somebody’s kicking too much ass. Larson’s been insane this year, and if he continues to be, I think that, you know, the purest and the fans who truly enjoy the sport will appreciate a good ass kicking.”

As you can tell, this is a topic that really resonated with Earnhardt Jr. and something that he didn’t necessarily agree with. While Larson, Blaney and other drivers may attribute the unhappiness of NASCAR fans to driver dominance from time to time, that couldn’t be further from the case.

If there’s anyone today’s drivers should listen to on this matter, it’s Dale Earnhardt Jr., of course. We’ll see if they change their tune ahead of the All-Star Race, but it’s evident there’s a bit of a disconnect at the moment.