Should NASCAR hold a Sprint Cup Series race on dirt?

Jeff Gluck | USA TODAY Sports

INDIANAPOLIS — Only two Sprint Cup Series drivers participated in Wednesday night's Camping World Truck Series race at Eldora Speedway — NASCAR's first dirt race in 43 years — but those who watched from afar liked what they saw.

"I really thought that was extraordinary for the racetrack, the series and the sport," Dale Earnhardt Jr. said Friday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where drivers are preparing for Sunday's annual Brickyard race. "What a risky, gutsy call to go do that. ... It's awesome it all came together so well, and I thought the race was fun to watch. I really enjoyed what I saw."

The race earned rave reviews from fans and drivers alike and prompted questions about the future of dirt racing in NASCAR. Should NASCAR consider running a Cup race on the dirt?

Jeff Gordon said he'd love to see a Cup race at Eldora, but joked he'd rather have Kyle Larson (who dominated Wednesday's race before settling for second) drive his No. 24 car instead.

"Everywhere I've gone this week, I've had people that are huge NASCAR fans and people who aren't fans who (said they) watched it and were blown away," Gordon said. "They did not expect it to go the way that it did. I thought, 'Why not have more races on a dirt track?'

"I don't think you'll ever see a Cup race at Eldora — at least not while I'm driving — but I'd certainly vote for it. I think it would be very cool to do."

Clint Bowyer, who shares a dirt-racing background with Gordon, spent Wednesday's event in Speed's infield TV booth and said he felt "stuck in a cage" while everyone else had fun racing. He couldn't think of a reason not to try a Cup race on dirt.

"If the fans liked it and it was well-received and people enjoyed it, why not?" he said. "This is a fan-driven sport, and it always has been. We've always been able to deliver to the fans bigger than most other sports, and (we need to) continue that. These tracks didn't build as big as they are (without) having that fan base and not being able to deliver to fans. Whatever it takes."

Bowyer pointed to the enthusiasm generated by the race, which has seemed to get even more attention in the NASCAR world than the buildup to Sunday's Brickyard event (the consensus second-biggest race of the season behind the Daytona 500).

"We don't change a whole lot in this sport," Bowyer said. "Look at the excitement and attention that one change made — and it was the Truck Series."

Earnhardt said his only complaint with the race was his DVR didn't record the whole thing, and he missed the last segment. But what he did see, he said, was "entertaining and exciting and something I hope to see more of, just from a viewer's standpoint."

Would he favor holding a Cup race on dirt?

"I think it'd be fun to go run there if they ever did an exhibition or something — I don't know about a full-on event — but yeah, maybe we end up doing that one day," he said.

A Nationwide Series team owner, Earnhardt suggested it might be better for the lower series to continue to try dirt racing first. And the Tony Stewart-owned Eldora, he said, is the ideal place to test it all out.

"I think it'd be fun for the series to have a couple dirt races, to be honest," he said.

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