Dale Earnhardt Jr., Nascar’s most-popular driver, officially announced that he will step away from the Nascar Cup Series at the end of the season. While FS1 provided coverage of the press conference (stepping away from their usual afternoon programming of people angrily yelling at each other), they cut away midway through for in-studio perspective. Here’s some of the other questions you may have missed:
“Bernie Glenn, News-American—I know that this is somewhat sudden and there’s still lots of moving pieces, and I wouldn’t dare to ask you who would be driving the 88 in 2018, but it’ll be William Byron, right? I mean, you don’t have to answer it now, but, it’ll be Byron, right? Don’t say anything if it’ll be Byron. Wait, you adjusted yourself in the chair—does that mean it’ll be Alex Bowman?”
“Brian Scott, Shore Lodge Dispatch—People have talked about all the big names that have left the sport recently—Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart, Carl Edawrds, myself, and now yourself. How did my retirement impact your decision?”
“Elton Leeds, IndyCar 360 dot com—This is actually a question for Jenna Fryer—if Dale Jr. decided to run the Indy 500, it would be a big deal because he’s American, right? RIGHT?!?”
“Scott Wilson, Diecast Collector Digest—Your 2005 MLB All-Star Game special paint scheme 1:24th scale diecast car, some of them have a 3/16th inch top black stripe on the sides, but some have a 1/4th inch top black stripe—was that on purpose to stimulate sales as an intentional ‘error piece’?”
“Car—er, um, Edward Carl, yeah, from some website—Wouldn’t it make more sense to just leave without a farewell tour?”