Dale Earnhardt Jr. on drivers' reactions after Bristol: 'Nobody went full Tony Stewart'

At one point during this past Sunday’s Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway, Goodyear went into full PR mode, holding a press conference to address the extreme tire wear taking place on the racetrack.

What Goodyear didn’t know at the time, was that the drivers were enjoying the brand of racing taking shape, in which drivers were challenged to manage their tires for 500 laps. While some adapted better than others, few had a negative word to say about the race.

As Dale Earnhardt Jr. said on “The Dale Jr. Download” this week, “nobody went full Tony Stewart” and ripped a new one into Goodyear.

“Fans loved it, Jeff Gluck’s poll was 88%. That’s a scientific fact,” Earnhardt said. “You also have Jeff Burton sort of helping steer y’all’s voice. He’s been going to Goodyear; he’s been talking to Goodyear through this whole process about getting this tire more aggressive. You guys get out the car at the end of that race and nobody went full Tony Stewart and tore Goodyear up about it. Everybody got out, you [Chase Elliott] said, ‘I had fun. I enjoyed it. I hope we get to do this more.’ Most of the drivers got out and said — even the ones that didn’t have great finishes, ‘I enjoyed what I did today, that was great.’

“When that race started, [Goodyear] was freaking out. They were thinking, ‘We’re gonna catch hell today. Fans, drivers, everybody’s gonna be on our ass.’ So, they went full PR mode at Lap 250. I’m standing there watching the race and next thing I know on my screen is the Goodyear guy going, ‘Man, we’re sorry.'”

Chase Elliott gives takeaways from Bristol: ‘Really hope that we can find some middle ground’

Elliott, in particular, was a fan of the way tire wear changed the racing at Bristol but confessed that it needs to be a little more controlled. Still, he’s hoping NASCAR doesn’t go too far in the other direction following the success of the event.

“I hope they don’t overreact, I guess is what I’m getting at, because it was really refreshing,” Elliott said. “You know, we were — we took the aero side out of it, to a point that was reasonable. And I just thought it was in the driver’s hands way more than it than it typically is. I wasn’t as excited about going back, because we had obviously done a lot of race review from the fall. And I’m like ‘God,’ I mean even some of the guys that were really, really good, got stuck back in the traffic and had a penalty. And guys that I would have expected to get their way back for just got stuck. You know, and that sucks. I mean, it really does. I think that sucks for everybody. So, I really hope that we can find some middle ground in all of this.

“There’s got to be a lesson in there somewhere. Because the race was too entertaining, and in a good way. You know, we weren’t crash and a bunch of stuff. Tearing each other up. I mean yes, there were some wrecks. But once people learned where the tire was gonna go and what was going to happen, you learn which tire you were hurting and what the car felt like when you had excessive wear, everyone kind of started living inside that box.

“I thought NASCAR letting that last run go green, I thought it was great. I would have been super thrilled as a fan. So, I hope everybody was, and more importantly, I hope that you know, NASCAR and Goodyear and everybody just doesn’t overreact. Please take a lesson from this. And try to make our product better, because it told me that we can make it really good.”