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Dale Earnhardt Jr. gets heated talking about old COTA vs. new

Brian Jones Profile Picby: Brian Jones03/05/25brianjones_93

Dale Earnhardt Jr. became very passionate when sharing his thoughts on the NASCA Cup Series race at Circuit of the Americas (COTA). On the Dale Jr. Download podcast, Earnhardt expressed how much he loved the new version of COTA compared to what it was before the changes.

“I didn’t like COTA,” Earnhardt began. “I didn’t like the long track. Boring. Cautions take forever. Course limits, track limits bulls***. I hated the track; didn’t like it. Bunch of piant red, white and blue and s*** everywhere. Not into it.

“When they go up the hill into Turn 1, that was cool. But as soon as they get out of Turn 1, it’s just a big old piece of asphalt with paint all over it. …It just doesn’t look like a racetrack. Didn’t enjoy it.

“New COTA, f***ing awesome! I love it. New COTA is great. I can’t say it enough. …They didn’t do nothing but take a mile out of the racetrack. …They just literally took a mile off this stupid track and made it an awesome track. I’m shocked because I would have never thought that I would like it. …This is why I don’t build racetracks.”

Dale Earnhardt Jr. shares more on COTA

While Earnhardt loves the improved COTA track, he also admitted to not being a big fan of road courses. “I just don’t get into the road course stuff that much,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “The left and right, and the technical, it just doesn’t turn me on.”

Dale Earnhardt Jr. later said he didn’t want a Cup Series race at COTA but understood why it’s there because “lots of people love COTA.” He then said, “Dude, they took a mile out of this track, something that I didn’t think would a hill of beans. It turned into and incredible race, all weekend, every lap.”

NASCAR began having races at COTA in 2021. In Sunday’s Cup race, Christophe Bell chased down Kyle Busch to cross the finish line first and win his second consecutive race of the year.

“These road course races are just so much fun,” Bell said after the race. “When Kyle was leading, I was trying to be cautious. We know what happened last year and I didn’t want to do that again. I wanted to race him clean… Whenever I got out front, I just didn’t want to beat myself. Those were some of the sloppiest laps I’ve run.”