Dale Earnhardt Jr delivers brutal one-word verdict on NASCAR's latest ratings killer

Sunday at the Roval in Charlotte did finally deliver some last-lap ‘drama’ for long-suffering NASCAR fans, but the legend that is Dale Earnhardt Jr was far from satisfied.

Up front it was New Zealander Shane van Gisbergen, as expected, dominating on a road course yet again to win the Bank of America Roval 400 by an absolute mile.

The procession in North Carolina delivered little excitement until the dying stages, when Denny Hamlin passed Ross Chastain on the final lap, sending his big title rival and three-time champion Joey Logano to safety and the Round of 8. Incredible scenes.

A few seconds later Chastain would attempt a desperate lunge to try and regain the place, and his playoff hopes. Instead he just wrecked Denny and span himself, before reversing over the finish line.

Those seconds of drama provided a big talking point after the race - Hamlin pretty much admitted he would not have made the move on Chastain had he known the playoff implications.

But despite the drama, most experts felt Sunday was largely another boring race, with TV ratings to match. 1.544m fans tuned in on the USA network, as opposed to 2.419m in 2024 (the caveat being NBC aired the race last year).

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Dale Jr and Charlotte playoffs download

One man who absolutely was not impressed by what he saw was NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt Jr. He summed up his feelings on the Dale Jr Download podcast.

“What happens at the end of the race with Chastain and Denny, you know I saw that, I watched it and I’m like ‘meh’," he said.

“I didn’t go ‘oh damn wow’ you know, man, Chastain backwards. I wasn’t that blown away by it. I saw a guy making a zero freakin percent shot, you know. It’s like a full court f****** heave that wasn’t going in.

“And so it wasn’t like ‘oh wow, if we don’t have the playoffs we don’t have that’. Well I didn’t want that, I didn’t need that. That didn’t make me go ‘damn, I’m glad we got the playoffs’ so I could see THAT.”

Dale Jr out on Logano playoff talk

The dramatic end to the day also of course reopened one major wound for haters of the current playoff format - somehow, Logano survived again. That narrative is one that Dale Jr does not like.

“And I’ll tell you this too. The more Joey Logano gets out of his car and talks about the playoffs, the more I don’t like the playoffs.”

Ultimately, Earnhardt Jr used the take of another top driver, Brad Keselowski, to emphasize the underwhelming reality of what had just taken place in Charlotte.

“Brad Keselowski comes on social media and says 'it’s clear as day, we had a guy [Shane van Gisbergen] dominate the road courses this year, win by a mile, and we end the race with a oh ho hum. Yep he did it again. And we’re uber focused on the 22 and the 1 which is a battle for eighth in points'.

"And I kind of feel similar, I see his point.”

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