Dale Earnhardt Jr. shares strategic advice for drivers ahead of Talladega Playoff race: "I am just racing like hell"

Dale Earnhardt Jr., the NASCAR legend who earned the moniker of “Pied Piper” after his dominant performances at restrictor plate tracks like Talladega, shared some important insights that the drivers need for the track. As the playoff reaches Talladega Superspeedway this Sunday, Earnhardt Jr. dropped some strategic advice for the drivers.

Like his father, Dale Earnhardt Jr. possesses one of the most notorious Talladega Superspeedway records, with six wins at the track. Although the Intimidator is in a league of his own with 10 wins (highest) at the track, his son is not far behind, standing at a joint-second highest wins alongside Jeff Gordon and Brad Keselowski.

Earnhardt Jr. won first in 2001 in the spring race and dominated the track throughout the early 2000s. He triumphed in 2002 (spring and fall), 2003 (spring), 2004 (fall), 2008 (spring), and recorded his final win at the track in 2015 (fall). Dale Jr. was particularly renowned for his restrictor-plate racing, methodical drafting, precise safe driving, and the ability to avoid crashes involving more than two cars, or the so-called Big One, which made him stand out among his counterparts.

In an episode of Dale Jr. Download, he shared his strategy at Talladega Superspeedway and said:

"I'm just racing like hell...I'm thinking of it from just purely the driver standpoint. My mentality would be go to the front, take the lead, lead, lead, lead... When you go to Talladega or Daytona, you can't strategize for crashes. Your chances of crashing in Talladega are 80%. Now that might drop down to like 70 if you race hard all day. If you're in like conservative mode, you might actually raise that percentage. At least that's what my experience was."

In the NASCAR Cup Series, Dale Earnhardt Jr. secured 26 victories, six of which were at the legendary Talladega Superspeedway. Though he never won the Cup Series championship, he was honored with the Most Popular Driver Award multiple times (he is the record holder for 15 consecutive wins from 2003 to 2017), which was indicative of his extraordinary relationship with the fans.

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Dale Earnhardt Jr. says Ty Dillon should’ve taken ‘deliberate’ action to avoid horrific Las Vegas collision with William Byron

During a recent episode of the Dale Jr. Download podcast, Dale Earnhardt Jr. criticized Ty Dillon’s actions during a late-race incident at Las Vegas Motor Speedway that resulted in a crash involving William Byron. With 31 laps remaining, Dillon, driving the #10 Ford for Kaulig Racing, attempted a green-flag pit stop but moved unexpectedly to the apron without signaling, leaving Byron running second in the #24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet with no time to react. Dale Earnhardt Jr. said:

"When you're pitting under a green flag, and it's one of those racetracks kind of like, you know, Vegas, where you spend a lot of time slowing down on the banking in the groove, and you're like, 'Goddang' and every time you're trying to get to pit road fast, but you're trying to also, like, not get run over. It is very nerve-wracking."

The contact between the two cars triggered a massive wreck that eliminated both from contention, ending Ty Dillon's race in 37th place and Byron's in 36th place, respectively.

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Edited by Riddhiman Sarkar