The NASCAR All-Star Race has started and the Cup Series officially makes a grand return to the North Wilkesboro Speedway. To say that there is a lot riding on this race would be an understatement. Among the people whose efforts made it possible is 2x Xfinity champion, Dale Earnhardt Jr. Recently, he spoke about the two heat races that decided who would participate in the main race, and where the drivers would line up.

Apparently, Dale Jr enjoyed the heats and commented on the tire situation. This was because it rained during both heats and the drivers had to use the wet weather packages. Dale Jr also found the drivers’ comments about the tires very interesting and is anticipating an exciting race.

Many fans disagree with Dale Earnhardt Jr on the heats

Dale Jr shared his thoughts on the heats by tweeting, “Enjoyed watching the heats tonight. The tire deal was interesting as were the drivers comments about them. Tomorrow is gonna be an epic environment.”

Unfortunately, there were not a lot of NASCAR fans who shared Junior’s enthusiasm. According to one fan, “It was slightly disappointing, but I think that has to do with the short runs. Still a nice experience.”

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A fan wrote, “I just wish the next gen wasn’t so horribly aero sensitive. Each time Nascar attempts to remedy the situation they make it exponentially worse.”

Another fan confessed that they were not too thrilled with the concept of heat races in NASCAR, saying, “Actually, it was a major disappointment. Not the atmosphere, but the calls NASCAR made. Also, and this may be an unpopular opinion, but heat races don’t belong in NASCAR, not a fan.”

Some were even hoping to see the Xfinity Series visit the North Wilkesboro Speedway someday. However, they did observe that the Cup cars do not perform well at short tracks.

Drivers seem happy with the wet weather package

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Admittedly, there were a fair number of fans who were not happy with the 2nd heat race. They felt that it was fairly substandard and only the presence of the rain saved the day. Moreover, Chase Elliott and Denny Hamlin too shared their thoughts about the heat race.

While the first heat race of 60 laps saw the usage of wet weather tires, the same tires were used in the second heat race only when the rain returned. With the wet weather tires working fine, Elliott even had an interesting proposal for Sunday.

Elliott said, “I mean yesterday in the practice was probably the most helpful but if the race s**ks in the first half [on Sunday], maybe we should put on the wet weather [tires] for the second half and see what happens. I mean it’s an All-Star race, so might be worth the try.”

Speaking to Fox Sports journalist Bob Pockrass, Hamlin said, “The slicks are just so hard that they actually didn’t fall off as much as what the rain tires did, and the rain tires ran faster. So we definitely got something. We saw it in Martinsville, and we’re seeing it here: You can run rain-ish tires on dry tracks and eventually have the type of racing that you’re looking for.”

Hamlin seemed impressed with Goodyear and insisted that more time should be spent on introducing similar features to make racing better at short tracks.

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