The People’s Champ.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. was in the broadcast booth for the NASCAR Cup Series race at Talladega this afternoon, and race fans were LOVING it.
This was a one-off FOX appearance for Dale Jr., who is usually in the booth when NBC covers the race, however with Jr.’s six career wins at the track, Fox had to give a call over to NBC and see if he could join their broadcast as well.
Brad Zager, FOX Sports president of production and operation and executive producer, told The Athletic:
“It’s not lost on me how rare this is to have your lead analyst appear on another network. I totally would have understood them saying no, right?
That’s their guy. They pay him for exclusivity and to appear on those NASCAR broadcasts on NBC. So, the headline is, ‘Thank You, NBC,’ for sure.”
Unfortunately, there hasn’t been any NBC broadcasts so far this season so Dale Jr. will still be watching from home, until later this year when NBC picks up more of the broadcasts.
We saw Ross Chastain take the checkered flag at the Geico 500 this afternoon, with Austin Dillon and Kyle Busch rounding out the top 3, but overall, not quite as many cautions as I was expecting towards the end of the race.
Bubba Wallace wrecked pretty hard towards the end, Joey Logano’s day was done early, Denny Hamlin ran outta gas, but everyone is still talking about the broadcast from Dale Jr.
Of course, Dale Jr. is one of the most popular drivers of all time, and not to mention GREAT at broadcasting, but nevertheless, maybe NASCAR needs to pay attention.
Here’s the post-race reaction:
Dale Jr. made Fox great again today👍🏻
— Full Season Points (@FullSeasonPts) April 24, 2022
I’ll say it once & I’ll say it again dale jr is the tony romo of nascar he brings so much to a broadcast that no one can really bring
— Doug Miller (@Yee_Ole_Miller) April 24, 2022
Sounds good to me.
All in favor?
And it looks like Dale Jr. had a blast too:
Check out the extended highlights from the Geico 500 at Talladega Superspeedway.
