NASCAR: How Dale Jr. annoys some of his former competitors

With Dale Jr. returning to the NASCAR broadcast booth this week, this time with Fox, let’s take a look back at what he had to say about how some of his former competitors feel about his analysis.

After Dale Earnhardt Jr. retired from NASCAR Cup Series competition following the 2017, he has still managed to make one start per year in the Xfinity Series, most recently doing so at Martinsville Speedway earlier this month. Afterward, he announced plans to continue that trend in 2023.

But beyond that, he took on a full-time role as an analyst NASCAR on NBC. Since the 2018 season, he has been in the booth for Cup Series races broadcast on NBC and other NBC-owned networks.

While NBC’s portion of the 2022 schedule isn’t due to begin until the race at Nashville Superspeedway on Sunday, June 26, Earnhardt is set to be in the booth for this Sunday afternoon’s race at Talladega Superspeedway. He is set to be a part of the Fox team for this event.

The unprecedented network crossover puts Earnhardt alongside lead announcer Mike Joy and clint Bowyer for Sunday’s GEICO 500.

The six-time winner at Talladega Superspeedway is set to become the seventh different individual to be in the booth alongside Joy and Bowyer this year in the third seat, which had been occupied full-time by Jeff Gordon before he stepped away after six years last season. Gordon, Tony Stewart, Matt Kenseth, Danica Patrick, Chad Knaus, and Darrell Waltrip have all been in the booth this year.

Speaking to Beyond the Flag a while back about his decision to go into broadcasting following his Hall of Fame career as a driver, Earnhardt shared a bit of comical insight on how his former competitors, namely his good friend Martin Truex Jr., feel about some of the comments he makes while in the booth.

Earnhardt referenced the October 2018 race at Martinsville Speedway during the round of 8 of the playoffs, when Joey Logano moved Truex out of the way in the final corner to win and clinch a spot in the Championship 4.

Afterward, Truex stated, “He may have won the battle, but he ain’t winning the damn war. I’m not going to let him win it. I’m going to win it.”

While Truex did qualify for the Championship 4 as well, Logano went on to win the “war”, passing Truex on the outside late in the championship race at Homestead-Miami Speedway and hanging on to win his first career title.

Here is what Earnhardt had to say about Truex’s “annoyance” with his buddy in the booth.

"“I have friends like Martin Truex Jr. that race today that is annoyed by me! It’s so funny. I’ll call Martin and be like, ‘We got a hunting trip planned’, or something. And we’ll get in a conversation, and he’ll tell something that I did that annoyed him and I’m like, ‘Martin, it ain’t nothing personal, buddy! We’re just up there in that booth trying to sell tickets and trying to get people interested in what’s going on!’“I said something about I didn’t think he was going to win the championship…when him and the 22 [Joey Logano] were going at it that year, I was like, ‘Martin is not going to do anything! He’s too nice!’, and what happened at Homestead? The 22 goes around him on the outside and Martin never did anything! He just sat there and watched it happen!“And I gave Martin a hard time because he’s too nice. And the reason I can say that is because I was the same way in my own career. I should’ve roughed up a lot of guys that didn’t get roughed up that deserved it.“I can say that about Martin because we’re friends and I know him, but when he hears it he goes, ‘Man, why you gotta say that? That made me mad!’ I’m like, ‘Well it’s okay it made you mad! I’m just calling it like I see it and that’s what the fans want to hear.’ So it’s pretty funny, it’s a lot of trivial stuff like that.”"

And thanks to Earnhardt doing this extra race with Fox on Sunday afternoon, Truex gets to hear him a few months early this year. Tune in to Fox at 3:00 p.m. ET for the live broadcast of the GEICO 500 from Talladega Superspeedway. FuboTV is currently offering free trials to new customers, so don’t miss out! Get yours today!