Dale Earnhardt Jr. reacts to record-setting number of caution laps at Bristol

Dale Earnhardt Jr. explained why he wasn’t upset about the record-setting number of caution laps at Bristol on Saturday night. On Dale Jr. Download, Earnhardt shared his reaction to the Bristol race having 14 cautions for 137 laps.

“I think that’s a common complaint that we hear in the short track world,” Dale Earnhardt Jr. said. “There’s a lot of reasons why the cautions are the way they are, and they are too long. But there’s reasons why that lap is added. Bristol is such a small track. That cleanup is tough to do because there’s constantly cars coming around. So the trucks and the people that are trying to do what they need to do to get the track ready for racing have a tougher job.”

Earnhart then told the story of the race where he got into it with Robbie Gordon. During the final laps of the race, Earnhardt complained to his team about the number of cautions that were happening. That led to NASCAR asking to see Earnhardt and Tony Eury Sr. after the race. Mike Helton, the current vice chairman of NASCAR, explained to Earnhart and Eury that there was “stuff littered all around the top groove of that race track,” which needed to be cleaned up. Helton then told them that they need to watch what they say on the radio when it comes to the cautions.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. shares more on cautions in NASCAR

“Cautions can get drawn out, and I’m definitely one of the people that feel like stage break is a little long,” Earnhardt said. “…The stage breaks are unnecessary, in terms of how long the caution is. But I’m sure there’s a reason.”

The first caution at Bristol happened at Lap 81, and the last happened at Lap 489. Ultimately, the 14 cautions led to the race lasting for three hours and 48 minutes. One driver who pointed out the cautions was Denny Hamlin, who talked about the race on the Actions Detrimental podcast.

“There was just so many pit stops, there were so many laps under caution, Hamlin said. “I saw where there was over two hours of run time under caution. We ran a lot of caution. …There was so, so many yellow flags. It’s hard to get in a rhythm, and then it just kept mixing up the tire strategy, and then you would run out of tires.”