Dale Earnhardt Jr. roasts Phoenix pace car driver after NASCAR Championship crash

Dale Earnhardt Jr. had some fun at the pace car driver’s expense following the hilarious accident that took place this past weekend at Phoenix Raceway.

While the drama was high for the final race of the season in Arizona, it was broken for a bit when the pace car driver dove down to pit road, lost control and wrecked himself. Many NASCAR fans and analysts admitted it was the first time they’ve seen something like that, and Earnhardt had a good laugh about it while examining what went down on Sunday afternoon.

“I saw that, and when the pace car is leading the field, and he’s going to go to pit road, one of the greatest things that I loved about a broadcast, especially with Ken Squire, was they would say, ‘The pace car dives onto pit road.’ The pace car doesn’t just gradually ease to pit road. It dives onto pit road. Well, listen — I appreciate the effort,” Earnhardt stated, via the latest episode of the Dale Jr. Download. “It needs to be a deliberate move. But you also need to know how to drive a car. It’s also important to understand the laws of gravity, physics. Look, I busted my ass plenty of times. I know I’m not perfect. But it needs to be a deliberate move. It can’t be a meandering — it’s got to be a deliberate move. He maybe needs to take a course. Driving course, with cones. Take that specific car though, so you can learn — can really understand the lateral grip, and the limits that this car has.

“It was like — the guy is no stranger to driving cars, but it was like he was driving that one for the first time. It seemed like he was just taken aback by — he expected more. The car just didn’t deliver. I think, you take that car — they’ve got all kinds of weight in the back, all those batteries and stuff for those lights and everything. There’s a bunch in that car — it’s not going to drive exactly like a stock car. So, seriously man, you’ve got to take that thing out and drive a little bit so that doesn’t happen again. … This can’t be the way we are with the pace car. Does he need to go and do some donuts in the parking lot, just to get his confidence back?”

Perhaps NASCAR should take Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s advice and allow the pace car driver to get some extra reps in prior to getting on the track. Thankfully, nobody was hurt, and disaster was avoided at Phoenix Raceway, but the memory of one of the funnier moments in recent motorsports history will live on.