From sheer playoff dominance to withering away in dust, Joe Gibbs Racing’s 2023 playoffs had been nothing short of disappointing. To rub salt into their wounds, Toyota’s mechanical failures headlined the 2023 4EVER 400 at Homestead, ending Denny Hamlin & Martin Truex Jr’s playoff journey. Securing a spot in the Championship 4, Christopher Bell soon ran out of luck too as an exploding brake rotor killed his championship hopes early at Phoenix.

Despite the anticlimactic end to JGR’s playoffs, Martin Truex Jr’s failure has especially ruffled the feathers of the entire NASCAR community. Going from the regular season champion to barely managing a top-20 finish was a glaring anomaly. Now Dale Earnhardt Jr has weighed in on JGR’s debacle, issuing a damning verdict against Joe Gibbs’ champ.

Martin Truex Jr’s poor execution riles up Dale Earnhardt Jr

Despite having only three wins under his belt, the 2017 Cup Series champion outclassed William Byron to secure the regular-season title. A plethora of top-5s and top-10s adorned Martin Truex Jr’s 2023 itinerary but come the playoffs, the #19 team had lost its spark. Hanging by a thread, the regular season champ barely cleared the playoff rounds, staying in the loop with a minimum points edge and a pinch of luck. Blame it on bad pit stops or just strategic failure, the entire racing community was fixated on Truex Jr’s unexciting top-20s saga. As the NASCAR world now moves into the off-season, Dale Earnhardt Jr had a lot of thoughts regarding the performance of NASCAR’s heavy hitters.

Wrapping up the final episode of this season’s Dale Jr Download, Junior had a few, rather fiery comments against MTJ. Speaking to co-host Mike Davis, Junior said, “Martin Truex Jr, I think he’d be happy about the season, regular season champion, big improvement over the last year.” Expressing his unhappiness with the 2017 Cup champ’s playoff fall, he further added, “Massive failure in the playoffs. Just no, just poor execution strategies, whatever you wanna call it. Whatever could happen, happened. They had good speed in their cars, but everything else just could not get right.”

Responding to Dale Earnhardt Jr’s words, Mike Davis too had a few words to spare, adding, “I’ll never understand the night and day difference between the regular season and the playoffs. My gosh. I mean, like, it’s bad mojo, bad luck, whatever they did in the playoffs, they gotta go reverse that in a big way for next year.”

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Amidst Dale Earnhardt Jr wrapping up podcast duties for the 2023 season, Mike Davis had some disappointing news to share of his own.

Dale Jr’s Bojangles studio to miss favorite occupant in 2024

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Mike Davis’ voice matching Dale Earnhardt Jr’s energy in every Dale Jr Download has earned a place in the heart of every true fan. Apart from being the President of Dirty Mo Media, Davis is also JR Motorsports’ Director of Communications, but above all, he is Junior’s best friend. At the beginning of the episode, Davis announced he would be stepping down from co-host duties at the Bojangles studio come 2024. 

To justify his departure, Davis said, “I’ve got some, you know, reasons that I wanted to step off of this, this role here. One of the reasons is I want to run this company and I need to do a better job of that. And I am looking forward to devoting attention that otherwise I spend on this to growing our company, making new shows, working with our team a lot closer.” Responding to Mike Davis’ announcement, a heavy-hearted Junior dropped a plain yet hard-hitting remark, stating, “Nothing lasts forever”.

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With Mike Davis vacating his Bojangles Studio seat, who do you think will fill up the role, or more importantly, can they fill in Davis’ shoes? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.