{"id":623045,"date":"2026-04-23T10:13:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T10:13:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/623045\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T10:13:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T10:13:08","slug":"earnhardt-jr-on-nascar-horror-crash-that-ruined-his-dinner-motorsport-sports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/623045\/","title":{"rendered":"Earnhardt Jr. on NASCAR horror crash that ruined his dinner – Motorsport – Sports"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dale Earnhardt Jr. shared his reaction to Carson Kvapil\u2019s dramatic crash during last Saturday\u2019s NASCAR<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

During the race, Kvapil\u2019s car was struck multiple times in a three-wide battle involving William Byron<\/a> on the inside. After contact from both sides, Kvapil hit the wall and lost control, sending his car airborne.<\/p>\n

On his Dale Jr. Download podcast<\/a>, Earnhardt Jr. explained how he first learned about his driver\u2019s 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\u2019s away, he makes a point of fully disconnecting, rarely keeping up with NASCAR while taking time off.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want anyone to take this the wrong way, but when I\u2019m on a trip, it\u2019s hard for me to plug into NASCAR. I just got it engrained in my head that I ain\u2019t going to watch the race today,\u201d Earnhardt Jr<\/a>. said.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s wife received a text from his sister.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re sitting there at dinner. Kelley text messages Amy, \u2018Carson flipped. Does Dale know?\u2019 I\u2019m 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\u2019t supposed to f—–g flip anywhere else,\u201d Earnhardt Jr. said.<\/p>\n

After hearing about Kvapil\u2019s 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. \u201cI went from, \u2018Hey man, it\u2019s going to be cool. They\u2019re going to race, I\u2019ll check in, I\u2019ll see how they finish,\u2019 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?\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cI watched a video of it, I\u2019m like, \u2018How in the hell?\u2019 I\u2019m like, \u2018They come off the corner, he [Byron] hits him [Kvapil], and they f—–g wreck? What is going on?\u2019 Then, William Byron texts me in the morning and he\u2019s like, \u2018Man, I\u2019m so sorry. I was just trying to go and I f—-d up. I\u2019m sorry I f—-d up.\u2019 I\u2019m like, \u2018Dammit.\u2019 So, that sucked. F——g sucked,\u201d Earnhardt Jr. said.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dale Earnhardt Jr. shared his reaction to Carson Kvapil\u2019s dramatic crash during last Saturday\u2019s NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":623046,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,86197,14056,4384,9397,73229,2475,634,233660,82,4382],"class_list":{"0":"post-623045","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nascar","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-carson-kvapil","11":"tag-dale-earnhardt-jr","12":"tag-hendrick-motorsports","13":"tag-jr-motorsports","14":"tag-kansas-speedway","15":"tag-motorsport","16":"tag-nascar","17":"tag-oreily-auto-parts-series","18":"tag-sports","19":"tag-william-byron"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/623045","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=623045"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/623045\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/623046"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=623045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=623045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=623045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}