“It’s the Daytona 500!” – Dale Earnhardt Jr Reveals His Confusion With Tony Stewart’s Decision

Back in 2004, Dale Earnhardt Jr seized victory at the Daytona 500, ahead of Tony Stewart. In a recent podcast, Dale Jr spoke about that race-winning move. Apparently, there were a few things that puzzled him. One of them was about Stewart not defending his position harder in the race.

He said, “I didn’t think that I was going to make the pass. Didn’t think it was possible to make the pass, and I don’t know why Tony didn’t defend it more than he did. I’m side-by-side through to turns 1 and 2, and I kind of backed up. He’s kind of going forward, coming off of Turn 2. We were separating ourselves, and as we’re coming off of Turn 2, he’s going to have momentum. I’m going to try and slow him down and we made contact and the side-draft starts working for me.”

In the end, the #8 driver made short work of the Joe Gibbs Racing driver. However, there was a new concern for Dale Jr, namely looking out for a hard-charging Kurt Busch pushing Stewart. So, he was really confused about why Stewart didn’t put up a bigger fight.

What else did Dale Earnhardt Jr say about that race?

Dale Jr continued, “As I pull forward and move down, he didn’t come down and side-draft me. It’s the Daytona 500, I don’t know why in the world he didn’t go, I’m almost, I’m going to side-draft you. Slow you down and keep this battle side-by-side.”

Now, the JR Motorsports driver/owner is looking forward to his talk with Kevin Harvick. In the past, the Stewart-Haas driver has been critical of Earnhardt Jr. So, many were excited to see what would become of that conversation. Meanwhile, Dale Jr will also be excited to see the Next Gen cars in action in 2022. While he will never get a chance to hop in one of the cars, at least he will be able to interview other drivers to gauge their reactions.

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