There were many, many complainants and critics of the late-race shenanigans in the Cup race at the Circuit of The Americas, and Dale Earnhardt Jr was also one of them. He made his frustrations pretty clear in a recent episode of The Dale Jr. Download podcast.

Junior was very critical of the quality of racing that NASCAR had facilitated and was embarrassed with the effect it might’ve had on “all kinds of people” watching it because of a few notable drivers apart from the usual.

“The moment the caution comes out I have the exact same emotional reaction I did as a race car driver and it’s frustrating because there was such a great pure awesome event happening and playing out and it gets interrupted and turns into a s**t show and we were on the grand stage,” Junior said.

Earnhardt’s opinion was one that Daniel Suarez also shared in a way, as he too called out the type of driving which NASCAR put on display at COTA.

Daniel Suarez seconds Dale Earnhardt Jr’s opinion on the COTA race

During the cool-down lap in last Sunday’s race, Suarez bumped his teammate Ross Chastain and Alex Bowman out of frustration for an incident that cost him a potential top 5 finish. This led to NASCAR making sure Suarez’s actions cost him $50,000.

Recently, the Mexican driver opened up on how he reacted to the penalty and shed some light on the bigger picture currently in NASCAR.

“I’ve been trying to work on myself mostly during the week, trying to clear my mind and reset,” Suarez told Frontstretch’s Michael Massie, adding, “I think the issue wasn’t really with one driver. I feel like it’s more as an industry, how we are allowing to have those kinds of bump-and-run restarts at the end of the races at road courses.

“I don’t think that’s right.”

Suarez added that he’s been affected by such driving twice, and on both occasions, he was running inside the top 5. He claimed it’s a shame they get taken out by “dumb driving” when they know how good they are on road courses as a team.

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Suarez doesn’t have a solution but has his mind made up for if there’s no solution

The #99 driver claimed NASCAR is working hard to deal with the type of “dumb driving” he referred to. Suarez emphasized that he remains hopeful that there will be solutions.

But when asked what he thinks a solution would be, Suarez said he has no answers.

“All I know is that NASCAR is working toward trying to make a better solution for some of these restarts. It doesn’t look right. This sport looks embarrassing,” he said.

Suarez called out drivers who get top fives and top tens by bumping other cars whereas some drivers, like him, who were fast, finish in spots like 27th. Having said that, he fired a warning to NASCAR and his colleagues.

“If NASCAR does something about it, that’s amazing. If they don’t I’ll just join the party,” he claimed.

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