Dale Earnhardt Jr. shared his reaction to Carson Kvapil’s dramatic crash during last Saturday’s NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race at Kansas. The JR Motorsports owner was not in attendance, as Kvapil started on pole in the No. 1 Chevrolet.

During the race, Kvapil’s car was struck multiple times in a three-wide battle involving William Byron on the inside. After contact from both sides, Kvapil hit the wall and lost control, sending his car airborne.

On his Dale Jr. Download podcast, Earnhardt Jr. explained how he first learned about his driver’s frightening crash.He was vacationing in St. Martin when the NOAPS race at Kansas Speedway took place. The former Hendrick Motorsports driver noted that when he’s away, he makes a point of fully disconnecting, rarely keeping up with NASCAR while taking time off.

“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 decided not to watch the race, believing that his team would be ok. Everything was going according to plan until Earnhardt Jr’s wife received a text from his sister.

“We’re sitting there at dinner. Kelley text messages Amy, ‘Carson flipped. Does Dale know?’ I’m like, flipped? Thought f—–g Talladega was next week? F–k we doing flipping? We could flip at Daytona, we could flip at Talladega, we ain’t supposed to f—–g flip anywhere else,” Earnhardt Jr. said.

After hearing about Kvapil’s crash, Earnhardt Jr. said his mood quickly shifted from enjoying his time away to frustration over the incident, which involved two of his drivers on track. “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 f—–g smoke coming out of my ears. F—–g dinner ruined. Night ruined. Like, what in the f–k?”

Earnhardt Jr. added that he was relieved to learn Kvapil was unharmed. A day later, Byron reached out to apologize for the incident. While Earnhardt Jr. did not express any direct frustration toward Byron, he admitted he was still puzzled by how the crash unfolded.

“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 f—–g 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 f—-d up. I’m sorry I f—-d up.’ I’m like, ‘Dammit.’ So, that sucked. F——g sucked,” Earnhardt Jr. said.

While the car ultimately protected the driver from injury, questions have been raised about how easily it became airborne and remained in the air for an extended period. NASCAR has since informed JR Motorsports that it will review the incident to evaluate potential improvements and reduce the risk of similar situations in the future.