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“Take the L” – Dale Earnhardt Jr Rips Apart NASCAR for Trying to Manufacture “Fireworks” at All-Star Race

Published 05/26/2022, 5:20 AM EDT

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Suffice to say that Dale Earnhardt Jr wasn’t happy with the yellow flag NASCAR threw right as Ryan Blaney was about to cross the line in the All-Star Race. The Hall of Famer believed that not only was it unnecessary, but throwing a yellow with an aim of creating excitement is out-and-out wrong.

“That was a big mistake to throw that yellow. There should’ve been nobody that close to the switch at that point. We ought to flip this sort of mentality of wanting to have a yellow, wanting to throw a yellow,” he said.

“If you’re managing a race or overseeing an event, your mentality ought to be that, ‘I do not want to throw a yellow. I really need a good reason to stop this race, to pause this race.'”

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“They’re so damn eager to throw it, they got their hands so close to the button they can actually throw a yellow with a car 50 yards from the finish line,” Earnhardt Jr continued.

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The JR Motorsports owner insisted that NASCAR shouldn’t be so eager to put out a yellow flag. And although he understands the safety aspect of the same, Dale Jr. added that in that particular instance, the “race was over.”  

NASCAR should’ve taken the ‘L’, according to Dale Earnhardt Jr

In Dale Earnhardt Jr’s words, the All-Star race wasn’t “an exciting race.” However, he did believe there were some moments that could’ve made the race exciting, like having Ross Chastain in the mix if he had not crashed.

“Ross Chastain was absolutely going to make it interesting, had he continued and not had the crash. He was gonna get up there and spoil the boring show they were having,” he added.

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Having said that, Dale Earnhardt Jr came back to his point about the yellow flag.

“There was no reason to throw it, other than to try to manufacture a green-white-checkered and have some sort of fireworks in those last final moments that would salvage the night,” he said. “That should never be our mentality.”

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“Take the L.”

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Written by:

Shaharyar Khan Chauhan

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Shaharyar is an F1 & NASCAR writer at EssentiallySports. A graduate in Journalism from Amity University, he has been a passionate follower of motorsports for a better part of the decade. A Max Verstappen and Ferrari supporter, he dreams of a pairing of the two in future.
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Edited by:

Pritam Priyedarshi