Can NASCAR drivers keep up with Rolex 24 field? Dale Earnhardt Jr. gives blunt assessment
DAYTONA BEACH — It's been over two decades since Dale Earnhardt Jr. ran the Rolex 24 with his dad, finishing second in a Corvette during the 2001 event.
And for Junior, those memories are enough to satisfy any craving of one day firing up another sports-car. The newest NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee is more than happy to watch the action from his home, or, in some cases, the NBC booth.
"I got no business out there," Junior said following a NASCAR Next Gen test at Daytona International Speedway earlier this month.
"I don't. I mean, you see the discrepancy with some of my peers who compete with these guys ... any of us that drive these stock-cars and then get in those cars, we're never the No. 1 guy on the team. We're kind of the last guy they want in the car.
"It's gotten more and more difficult for the non-IMSA guy to go into that world and be competitive. The pure speed of those guys is just ramped way up."
Through the Gears: NASCAR Hall of Fame finally grows and guess which track could be back?
Dale's done: Dale Earnhardt Jr. tests at Daytona, but don't expect a Cup return: 'I'm done taking risks'
Rolex 24: Five things to watch after a hectic Roar Before the 24 weekend
Perhaps Junior has a point.
This year's mega 61-car Rolex 24 field — the largest since 2014 — is unusually thin in the NASCAR class.
Yes, Jimmie Johnson is back behind the wheel of the No. 48 Cadillac for the second straight year, but unlike years past, names like Chase Elliott, Kyle Busch, Austin Dillon and Jamie McMurray are nowhere to be found on the entry list.
In fact, Austin Cindric, who will take over the No. 2 Ford for Team Penske this season, is the only active NASCAR name you'll find on Saturday's starting grid.
Cindric will also run in Friday's 4-hour BMW Endurance Challenge, along with fellow Cup drivers Chase Briscoe (No. 14 Ford for Stewart-Haas Racing) and Harrison Burton (No. 21 Wood Brothers Ford), and Truck Series driver Hailie Deegan.
While Johnson had a good showing in last year's Rolex 24 — his first in a decade — there was still a noticeable learning curve.
"I feel like I had a false sense of comfort last year," he told The News-Journal during last month's test. "I showed up (in IMSA), and I was a second, second-and-a-half off, and I was really surprised by that.
"You look at this driver lineup — Formula 1 drivers, accomplished IndyCar drivers, accomplished sports-car drivers — it is so stacked, and so much more intense than I thought a year ago."
Of course, there are other reasons for a limited NASCAR entry list this year, with the most obvious being the Busch Clash, which will take place a week earlier this year in California.
The addition of several Next Gen tests — the one earlier this month at Daytona and one going on this week in Phoenix — certainly doesn't help, either.
However, as Junior said, things have also changed a lot in 20 years. The cars are faster, the competition is better, and the gap has widened.
"I hate to say this, but I have to be honest," he continued. "When I ran the Rolex, they were like, 'Man, just go out there and run 80, 90%.' In our test sessions, we would push to try to match the lap times of the experts, me and my dad would. We worked really hard and overstepped the boundaries a couple times, wrecked the car a few times.
"But in the race they were like, 'You don't have to do that. Just go out there and keep it in one piece.' Our lap times ended up working out OK in the race, I was pretty happy with it, but you didn't really have to push. Having worked the 24 Hours with NBC the last couple years, those guys are qualifying every single lap.
"These are the best road-racers in the world. It's crazy. I admire it — the ability and the speed they can maintain for 24 hours. It's pretty incredible."
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: NASCAR participation down in Rolex 24 and Dale Earnhardt Jr. knows why
