Has the NASCAR Cup Series season been “bad?” Depends who you ask. Either way, Dale Earnhardt Jr. is excited for this weekend. In the Next Gen car, Kansas has given us some of the best races. That, of course, includes last year’s 0.001-second photo-finish between Kyle Larson and Chris Buescher.

Kyle Larson is one driver who doesn’t necessarily like the talk about “good” races versus “bad” races. When he dominated Bristol last fall and this spring, fans online seemingly had a consensus that the races were not good.

This weekend, when asked by Kaleb Vestal of Speedway Digest , Larson was frank. He definitely isn’t on the same page as the social media fanbase.

“Yeah, but then if it’s a boring race, everybody is going to complain even more about the cars like, ‘Oh my God, Kansas has been so great in the past and they brought a new left-side tire and now the racing sucks. NASCAR, you’re idiots, Goodyear, you suck.’ We’ll see how the race goes,” Larson said, via Jeff Gluck of The Athletic .

In response, Dale Earnhardt Jr. pushed back on that. He is ready for this weekend and thinks that we are due for a great race.

“No chance we get a dud Kansas,” Dale Jr. responded. “We are so due!”

No chance we get a dud Kansas. We are so due!

Dale Earnhardt Jr. was in the camp that Texas was a good race. Has there been too much discussion over the “quality” of racing online? With continued ratings wins this season, including a considerable bump for the Texas race, which do you take more seriously?

Clearly, the online fanbase is the most invested. They are the fans who take in all of the news, all of the details about the sport, including the car. So, they are the most passionate. But are they the majority of fans?

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Dale Earnhardt Jr. expects good race at Kansas

I don’t think there is any chance this Kansas race is “bad” – whatever that means. However, to Kyle Larson’s point, this new left-side tire is causing issues already. In practice, there were multiple drivers with left rear tire failures. Could that cause issues in the race?

Tire wear is always good in stock car racing. Whenever there are more elements that teams and drivers have to juggle, the better. Test these drivers and push them to the limits of what is possible in that car on and on the track. Hopefully, drivers and teams learn from practice and avoid those tire failures on Sunday.

Kyle Larson and Denny Hamlin appear to be two of the fastest on the track. I think NASCAR fans and Dale Earnhardt Jr. would love to see another battle between those two at this track. Those finishes in 2023 between Hamlin and Larson will be replayed for years to come.

Is Dale Jr. right? Are we guaranteed to have a good race this weekend? I think I would agree with that. Then again, these left rear tires are a slight cause for concern.