Dale Earnhardt Jr. offers ‘crazy’ solution to NASCAR practice debate ahead of Daytona 500

Dale Earnhardt Jr. may have solved NASCAR’s practice debate after the organization changed the rules for the 2025 season. On X, Earnhardt revealed what NASCAR should do about practice ahead of the Daytona 500.

“Here’s an idea. Open the track up for practice. If you don’t want to practice, you don’t practice. If you want to practice, you practice,” he wrote. “Crazy idea I know, but would you believe they used this method for decades with no real complaints(?)”

Dale Earnhardt Jr. was responding to a fan who wrote, “NASCAR drivers and teams, ‘we want more practice.’ NASCAR drivers and teams today, ‘practice is unnecessary.’” Back in December, NASCAR revised its practice and qualifying format for 2025. For Superspeedways like Daytona, Talladega and Atlanta, drivers will not be allowed to practice. However, they can practice during the week of the Daytona 500 in a 50-minute pre-qualifying session.

The drivers had their practice session on Wednesday, and Christopher Bell said it “didn’t feel necessary.” When it was all said and done, Denny Hamlin paced the field on Wednesday with a top speed of 187.480 miles per hour.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. is ready for the Daytona 500

The 2025 Daytona 500 is big for Earnhardt as JR Motorsports is looking to take part in the race with Justin Allgaier as its driver. “I am not nervous,” Dale Earnhardt Jr. said to Kelly Earnhardt Miller on Dale Jr. Download last month. “I almost feel like that we can’t go down. We’re starting at the bottom. There’s zero expectation. We are at the bottom, and the only way we can go is up. I personally hope that this is the start of more opportunities for us to compete at the Cup level.

“Should it be a situation where it’s very challenging, it would only motivate us to continue to go back because that’s how we work. When we don’t entirely succeed a something, we retool and try again. We don’t love to walk away from something without trying to succeed at it.”

Earnhardt has had his share of success in the Daytona 500, winning the race in 2004 and 2014. He also finished second in the Daytona 500 four times and third twice.

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