Dale Earnhardt Jr. reacts to Brickyard 400, paints bleak picture for Next Gen car at Indianapolis

Dale Earnhardt Jr. had some interesting things to say about this year’s Brickyard 400 and the Next Gen car at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. On the Dale Jr. Download podcast, Earnhardt revealed what stood out to him at the Brickyard 400.

“In Stage 1, this year, we had the one car get crashed,” Dale Earnhardt Jr. said. “Everybody was saving so much fuel that they were riding half-throttle around the racetrack two seconds off the pace. You might have another three quarters a second to a second of real fall off, but the rest of it is all just riding half-throttle, saving fuel.

“You’re the leader, you want to keep the lead, so you’re running hard enough to keep the guy in behind you in second behind you. He’s saving, and he’s doing the same thing. Everybody’s looking in the mirror, riding around, trying to keep their spot, except for some of the guys in the back.”

Dale Earnhardt Jr. did not hold back on the Next Gen car

Earnhardt then talked about the issue that the Next Gen car presents at a track, like Indianapolis. “The Next Gen car has good things; it also has some bad things,” he said. “One of the bad things is it is the worst car in the history of NASCAR in terms of dirty air directly behind each other.

“Now, offset, it’s not bad. Maybe in some areas, the best car that NASCAR has ever had is when the cars are separated and there’s multiple grooves. But at Indianapolis, there’s one groove, ain’t never going to be two grooves. That’s a 90-degree turn, never going to be two grooves. It’s always going to be a one-groove track.”

At the Brickyard 400, the drivers who had the most laps were Austin Cindric (40), Chase Briscoe (34) and Bubba Wallace (30). Based on what Earnhardt said about not giving up the lead and saving fuel, it’s not surprising to see those three with the most lap leads since they started in the front of the pack. Cindric started at P10, Briscoe won pole and Wallace, who won the race, had a P2 start.