New NASCAR rule change opens door for F1 drivers to compete in the Cup Series<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cIf F1 raced on ovals, I could have won an F1 race, absolutely!\u201d Earnhardt told Hard Rock Bet.<\/p>\n
\u201cI grew up racing on ovals, that\u2019s really like a completely different, unique discipline.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe way you drive an oval vs the way you drive a road course is so different. So, I think if they ever ran them on ovals I\u2019d have a shot, for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Earnhardt\u2019s self-confidence doesn\u2019t just center on his belief that NASCAR drivers are better than everyone else. He\u2019s equally confident that a Formula 1 driver could take an easy NASCAR win given the right circumstances.<\/p>\n
\u201cF1 drivers could absolutely come into NASCAR and be competitive, but mainly on the road courses,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that they\u2019d have a hard time learning the discipline of racing on our ovals with the kind of cars we have.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt would be as difficult as any of our oval guys trying to go over there and be great in F1.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut if they came and ran a road course race, you\u2019d have to say that they had a shot to win.\u201d<\/p>\n
While cross-discipline swaps were more common in the past \u2014 drivers like Mario Andretti and Dan Gurney both tried their hand at both NASCAR and F1, and they were able to take wins in both categories \u2014 there are still a handful of modern drivers who have made the F1 to NASCAR swap.<\/p>\n
Jenson Button, Daniil Kvyat, Kimi Raikkonen, Juan Pablo Montoya, and Jacques Villeneuve have all tried their hand at NASCAR \u2014 often on a part-time schedule.<\/p>\n
Earnhardt himself has recently gotten his first taste of F1, albeit not behind the wheel. He was invited to the Miami Grand Prix as a guest of Red Bull Racing and Hard Rock Bet.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe amenities are awesome,\u201d Earnhardt said on his podcast, Dale Jr. Download. \u201cThey had this swimming pool bungalow.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe swimming pool had mermaids in it!\u201d his wife Amy chimed in. \u201cIt was like a scene; it was really cool.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll say this \u2014 and I\u2019m being completely honest,\u201d Earnhardt continued.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m a NASCAR fanboy. NASCAR to me will always be the greatest thing in the whole wide world. It always will be. Of course it is; I grew up around it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m more entertained by the NASCAR product \u2014 but I was a bit surprised by how entertained I was by the F1 product, especially when Max [Verstappen] was trying to defend.\u201d<\/p>\n
Read next:\u00a0Cadillac F1: Everything you need to know about the new 11th team<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Could a NASCAR driver win a Formula 1 race? NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt Jr. certainly believes…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":123567,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4103],"tags":[4199,707,4200,225,13189,12,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-123566","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-f1","8":"tag-f1","9":"tag-formula-1","10":"tag-formula1","11":"tag-home-page","12":"tag-nascar","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114553647513216135","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123566"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123566\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/123567"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}