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The fate of the Auto Club Speedway is somewhat of a gray area as of now. No one’s certain if there would ever be a racetrack built there again even though there are proposals for it being converted to a short track. But if the racetrack is going to come back in a new form, Dale Earnhardt Jr has some advice for the new track owners.

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Earnhardt Jr has long been the voice of reason in the NASCAR community, as he has often been the one who manages to find a common voice between what fans want to see and what drivers want to see.

Quite recently, he shares his thoughts on what the new owners of the Fontana racetrack should do, so not only are drivers happy, but the fans too are happy. And yes, those two things are interrelated as per the Hall of Famer.

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Dale Earnhardt Jr on what he wants the new Fontana owners to do

Speaking in a recent episode of his podcast show, Dale Jr revealed the “couple things” he would encourage the new track owners of Auto Club Speedway to do.

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“I would encourage them to use simulation programs like iRacing. I would also encourage to include as many Cup drivers in the development and design of the racetrack, it’s possible, particularly on the simulation side,” he said.

“Whatever Autoclub’s gonna be, get them various versions, try this one, try this one, try this one, A, B, C, D, E, F, G, different bankings, different transitions, tell them which ones you like the best and get driver feedback.”

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Junior claimed that when drivers come on board for any project, and when they get excited, that usually translates into getting the fans on board too.

“If I hear two or three reputable Cup guys telling me that they’re pretty excited about it, then I’m gonna be excited. So that would be probably a good direction,” he claimed.

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Junior throws three names from current drivers who should be given this task

Despite raising the point that Cup drivers should be brought on board for the sim time in the development of the new racetrack, Earnhardt Jr also emphasized that not all drivers can be considered as candidates for this task, that there are “a handful of them who are pretty decent” at this.

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Having said that, he named the three drivers he thought could do well.

“William Byron, Denny Hamlin…(Kevin) Harvick’s pretty decent on the sim, there’s a handful of guys that would be able to hop on the rig, run some laps around, multiple different ideas of configurations, and bankings, and so forth,” Dale Jr said.

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He insisted that for anything “big ticket” NASCAR wants to do, be it changing the race format, changing a track configuration, or any major stuff which could really impact the fans, they have to involve the drivers.

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 “You gotta get the driver feedback, not only include them in try to develop things like this but you also need them to like it, so they go out and talk about it favorably,” he reasoned.

Also Read: “This Is the Sh*t That Bothers Me” – Dale Earnhardt Jr Has a Bold Admission Amidst Kyle Busch’s Historic Win

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