Dale Earnhardt Jr. was born into racing royalty and has seen nearly everything that can happen on a track, but Clint Bowyer’s controversial spin and Brian Vickers’ end of the race pitting on Saturday night at Richmond International Speedway even caught the 38-year-old fan favorite by surprise.
“It was really fascinating. It was like a movie,” Earnhardt told The Post, as he prepares for the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup to start on Sunday at Chicagoland Speedway (2 p.m. ESPN). “Really? This all went down? I can’t believe this happened.
“It was odd what was happening. Only Clint knows what was going on … It had so much of a ripple effect. Everybody was affected in some way or form.”
NASCAR acted quickly to Bowyer and Vickers’ attempt to help teammate Martin Truex Jr., fining Michael Waltrip Racing $300,000, suspending general manager Ty Norris indefinitely and docking Truex, Boyer and Vickers 50 points for manipulating the results of the race.
With the penalty, Ryan Newman replaced Truex for the final spot in the Cup field.
Newman led the race with seven laps to go, with a victory sealing a spot in the Cup, but Bowyer’s spinout resulted in a caution, leading to Newman losing the race and the last spot in the field to Truex.
After further investigation, NASCAR found radio communication between Bowyer and his crew indicating the spin was intentional, as well as evidence MWR had Bowyer and Vickers let Joey Logano pass them in order to knock Jeff Gordon out of the Cup field, in order to help Truex.
Earnhardt admitted to doing the same thing in the past, as well as having it done to him, and though he doesn’t necessarily agree with the exact punishments handed out, he is glad something was done, and done quickly.
“NASCAR felt like they needed to make a decision that prevents this from becoming a common occurrence and I really like that,” Earnhardt said. “I’ve been on the wrong end of it, but I like it when NASCAR is stern and strict. I believe in a NASCAR that is governed with a heavy fist.
“I want a level playing field and I don’t want anybody with the audacity that they think they can get away with anything. And it’s our job to do that as a race car driver and teams and crews to sort of work in those gray areas and try and find advantages, but if NASCAR doesn’t come down and come down hard in certain situations, then the lunatics are running the asylum, and that’s not good.”