Dale Earnhardt Jr. takes issue with Aric Almirola Xfinity win, feels hypocritical

Dale Earnhardt Jr. has some strong thoughts on Aric Almirola‘s win at NASCAR’s Phoenix Xfinity Series race this past weekend. On Dale Jr. Download, Earnhardt reacted to Almirola’s aggressive driving against Alex Bowman to earn the victory.

“We would maybe expect this out of a young, hungry rookie,” Earnhardt said. “Then all of us in our mind would go, ‘God, he’s got to learn to race with more respect. Wins are going to come. He’s talented, he doesn’t need to do it that way. But this is Aric Almirola, who has ran his entire Cup career. He’s out there like, ‘I don’t give a s***.’ I think a lot of us don’t really know how to think about the Xfinity race. I know that it sucked for Bowman.”

Dale Earnhardt Jr. added, “I agree that it depends on who’s doing it. If that had been one of my drivers, I probably would not feel that bad about it. It wouldn’t be my favorite win of ours in our existence at JR Motorsports. But I would have figured out a way to justify it or at least live with it.”

Dale Earnhardt Jr. reflects on his father’s aggressive driving

Earnhardt then talked about how Almirola’s driving reminded him of how his father, Dale Earnhardt, raced. “Aric does this in Xfinity race, the guys that are racing in the CARS Tour or racing at their local racetrack or racing in the ARCA Series, they see that and say, ‘Hey, if I’m in that situation, that’s a great move. I’m going to do that, I’m going to be that aggressive to try to get myself the win. That’s all that matters is just trying to get the win,'” Earnhardt said.

“I struggled with that because I don’t want that to be every finish in the CARS Tour every week because we’re going to have a lot of disappointed and frustrated people. Every once in a while, it’s okay, but I got back to the way my dad raced in 1986-87. He was as aggressive as any. So it’s hard for me to have any kind of hypocritical thought about it.”

Aric Almirola won the Xfinity race after making door-to-door contact with Alex Bowman in the final two turns. “I just knew I needed to get from there to here first,” Almirola said after the race, per NASCAR.com. “I knew I was going to use him up a little bit, but was trying to win the race. I feel like it was warranted. I didn’t feel like I did anything overly egregious. I just throttled up, and it was a drag race to the start-finish line.”