“The loyalty starts to fade”: Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s wife Amy on NASCAR potentially making a U-turn in Martinsville controversy
The Xfinity 500 race at Martinsville Speedway on November 3, 2024, ended controversially, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. and his wife were not impressed with NASCAR's verdict. The officials allowed Hendrick Motorsports driver William Bryon to advance to the Championship 4 race and penalized Joe Gibbs driver Christopher Bell, shattering his chances to succeed.
Earnhardt Jr. reflected on the situation and recalled the last race of the Round of 12 when NASCAR slammed Alex Bowman with a penalty, disqualifying him from the race. Bowman wheeled in 18th at the Bank of America ROVAL 400 at Charlotte Motor Speedway on October 13, 2024, and in a post-race inspection, his car was found too light, dropping him to 38th place. Joey Logano leapfrogged Bowman and entered the round-of-eight race.
Earnhardt Jr. expressed anger over a similar situation at the Martinsville race, with Byron replacing Bell in the Cup Series championship race.
"I don't believe you put somebody that's knocked out into the playoffs. I feel like that takes any legitimacy out of it entirely. They already got tricky with that when they penalized the #48 and put Logano in, and so doing more of that, I'm gonna lose my, as a fan, I'm gonna lose my, like, the value of this is in question," Dale Earnhardt Jr. said.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s wife, Amy Earnhardt, agreed with her husband and said:
"The loyalty kind of starts to fade as a fan and you can't trust it." [00:21]
Earnhardt Jr. was frustrated by the scenario and had "a hard time saying it publicly." His co-host also joined in and mentioned that he was also confused about whether he was "entertained" or "disgusted" by the outcome of the Martinsville race.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. left disappointed after NASCAR rejects Sam Mayer's appeal
NASCAR Xfinity Series driver Sam Mayer was penalized for failing the post-race inspection for rear body height and violating rule 14.17.3.2.2.2 of the NASCAR rulebook. Mayer was initially placed 16th at the United Rentals 250 race at Talladega Superspeedway on October 5, 2024, but the penalty dropped him to the last place.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. raised his appeal for Mayer's disqualification, and NASCAR rejected their plea. He expressed his disappointment with the scenario on his X (formerly known as Twitter) account.
"The rear clip on the 1 was bent from a series of aggressive bump drafting incidents Saturday. We had photo evidence of the kinks in the tubing in a chassis that was previously certified along with body scans before and after the event. There isn't much we can do about the clip possibly getting destroyed in these races. It happens. Unfortunately, we weren't able to convince the panel of our unenviable situation. On to the Roval," Dale Earnhardt Jr. wrote.
The situation led the JR Motorsports driver to drop into the Xfinity playoff bubble. After the round of eight, he was out of the Championship 4 race scheduled for November 9, 2024, at Phoneix Raceway.