Michael Shroyer-Imagn Images
Dale Earnhardt Jr. has seen enough of NASCAR’s top series racing at Martinsville Speedway and wants to see it kicked off the schedule. Martinsville Speedway ran its first NASCAR Cup Series race (then called the NASCAR Strictly Stock Series) way back in 1949.
“There’s been a lot of conversation about the Xfinity Series racing at Wilkesboro. There’s not much to that,” Earnhardt said this week on his Dale Jr. Download podcast. “I’ve always said, I said something about if they put a race there, I’ll run it. I said that years ago, I said that when Wilkesboro came back. I said it every year. That’s not a new bit of information.
“I’d rather have an Xfinity race there than Martinsville. That s— we’re doing at Martinsville is for the birds. I don’t love taking my cars over there and watching them get destroyed and watching our drivers destroy each other. So I’d love them to not go to Martinsville and go to Wilkesboro. That’d be better.”
“Martinsville can be a good race though,” his co-host said, to which Dale Jr. replied, “Yeah, prove it. I don’t think so. Not in the Xfinity Series.”
Earnhardt went on to say, “I have zero confidence that drivers can have a good entertaining race at Martinsville. Maybe there was one and I’ve just forgotten it because so much destruction has happened, it’s washed it from my memory.”
He then blamed the bad racing and all the carnage at Martinsville on the stages.
“The stage breaks, I think, are killing Martinsville,” he said. “Because the runs are so short, it makes people drive like idiots and there’s no, like, comers and goers. There’s no tire fall off. There’s no struggle to drive. Everybody, you know, I think the stages there are 40 laps or some s—, which is ridiculous.”
Making it very, very clear how much he hates Martinsville Speedway, Dale Earnhardt Jr. continued on, saying, “We’ve got 12 cars on fire smoking sitting on the front straightaway after every race,” adding, “If the Xfinity series goes to Wilksboro and they just destroy everybody on the front straightaway coming to the checker then I’ll [admit I was wrong].”