Dale Earnhardt Jr. Defends Cody Ware After Late Spin at Kansas Speedway

One of the biggest moments of the NASCARCup Series race at Kansas Speedway was Cody Ware’s self spin. He was on 60 lap old tires and trying to get to the end, but he couldn’t hold on, and a caution came out to trigger overtime.

Denny Hamlin and his fans are still sore a few days later. He lost out on the win as Tyler Reddick was able to bounce back in overtime to win.

Dale Jr. knows what it’s like as a driver to experience these late race heartbreaks. Still, he couldn’t place all of the blame on Ware and Rick Ware Racing.

Denny Hamlin prepares for qualifying at Kansas Speedway.

“It sucks. And I totally get how Denny feels, cause you race all day long,” Earnhardt said on his podcast this week. “I don’t care if you’re going to win, you’re gonna run second, third, or fourth, or whatever, you run all day long, and you’re like, how in the (expletive) can we not finish a couple more laps without spinning out? But it just happens.

“So, there’s a side of me that totally gets where Denny’s coming from, if I’m the race car driver, I’m 100% on Denny’s side, but at the same time, golly man, that was the only natural yellow we had all day long. Like, we don’t, we need more of those (expletive) crashes and spins. We need self spins, we need (expletive) engine failures. We need things that are naturally clunky.”

During the podcast, Dale Jr. started to go back and forth with his producer, Travis Rockhold. For those wondering why Ware didn’t pit on his 60 lap old tires, Dale put it in a way only he can.

“I mean, it’s five laps to go, why would you put on a set of tires to (expletive) ruin them for five laps?” the Hall of Famer asked.

While Dale Jr. understands why Ware would try to run on tires for 60+ laps, he isn’t dismissing any criticism of the driver and his team.

“If he’s sitting here, it’s the same, if he’s sitting here, it’s absolutely fair to say, Cody Ware, finish the (expletive) race, don’t spin,” Earnhardt said.

But when it comes to the caution, Earnhardt would rather see a natural one occur than to have no natural cautions at all. It might have been a bad beat for Denny Hamlin, but that’s how NASCAR goes at times.

“I mean that to me is a natural, just a happenstance. It sucks.”

This story was originally published by Athlon Sports on Apr 22, 2026, where it first appeared in the Racing section. Add Athlon Sports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

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