Dale Earnhardt Jr. opened up about his reaction to Carson Kvapil’s violent flip in last Saturday’s NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race at Kansas.
The JR Motorsports owner was not present for Saturday’s race. Meanwhile, Kvapil led the field to the green flag in the No. 1 JR Motorsports Chevrolet.
On just the second lap, after contact with William Byron’s No. 88 JR Motorsports car, Kvapil tumbled down the backstretch, barrel rolling numerous times before coming to a stop upside down.
Kvapil walked away from the crash uninjured. On his “Dale Jr. Download” podcast, Earnhardt Jr. revealed how he found out about his driver’s violent crash.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s reaction to Kvapil flip: ‘(Expletive) we doing flipping?’
Earnhardt Jr. was enjoying himself on a vacation in St. Martin’s when the NOAPS took to the Kansas Speedway.
When the former Hendrick Motorsports driver is on vacation, he enjoys relishing in the time off, and often does not tune into the NASCAR world during that time.
“I don’t want anyone to take this the wrong way, but when I’m on a trip, it’s hard for me to plug into NASCAR. I just got it engrained in my head that I ain’t going to watch the race today,” Earnhardt Jr. said.
The 51-year-old opted to not tune into the race, thinking that his JR Motorsports team would be OK.
Everything was going along swimmingly, until Earnhardt Jr.’s wife, Amy, received a text message from his sister, Kelley Earnhardt Miller.
“We’re sitting there at dinner. Kelley text messages Amy, ‘Carson flipped. Does Dale know?’ I’m like, flipped? Thought (expletive) Talladega was next week? (Expletive) we doing flipping? We could flip at Daytona, we could flip at Talladega, we ain’t supposed to (expletive) flip anywhere else,” Earnhardt Jr. said.
After learning of Kvapil’s tumble in Kansas, Earnhardt Jr. said his mood went from enjoying quality time away from the racetrack to frustration about what happened on the racetrack involving two of his drivers.
“I went from, ‘Hey man, it’s going to be cool. They’re going to race, I’ll check in, I’ll see how they finish,’ to 10 out of 10 (expletive) smoke coming out of my ears. (Expletive) dinner ruined. Night ruined. Like, what in the (expletive)?”
Earnhardt Jr. went on to say he was relieved to know that Kvapil was OK after the violent wreck.
Dale Jr. reveals post-Kansas text exchange with William Byron
While unintentional, it was contact from Byron that led to Kvapil flipping down the backstretch.
One day removed from the incident, the Hendrick Motorsports driver reached out to Earnhardt Jr. to apologize. While Earnhardt Jr. did not indicate any frustrations towards Byron over the incident, he was still left baffled at how the crash happened.
“I watched a video of it, I’m like, ‘How in the hell?’ I’m like, ‘They come off the corner, he [Byron] hits him [Kvapil], and they (expletive) wreck? What is going on?’ Then, William Byron texts me in the morning and he’s like, ‘Man, I’m so sorry. I was just trying to go and I (expletive) up. I’m sorry I (expletive) up.’ I’m like, ‘Dammit.’ So, that sucked. (Expletive) sucked,” Earnhardt Jr. said.
Byron went on to finish sixth for JR Motorsports on Saturday. Meanwhile, Justin Allgaier placed third in the No. 7 JR Motorsports car, while Sammy Smith placed 16th in the No. 8 JR Motorsports machine.
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