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Dale Earnhardt Jr. Weighs In On Remote Booth Controversy

May 19, 2026  ·
  John Trent

Dale Earnhardt Jr. shared his thoughts on the ongoing controversy surrounding remote booths to call races.

Numerous fans have shared their distaste and criticisms of the remote booths and it’s seen a number of individuals such as Jamie McMurray and even more recently Denny Hamlin share their thoughts. First McMurray spoke with Kelly Krandall at Racer.com saying, ““I’m kind of bitter about this. I’ve seen people be like, ‘it’s not fair to Adam, Jamie, and Parker to not be at the track’, and that’s simply not true. The balance of CW will be at more races this year than any other network.”

“But the studio is exceptional – the monitors that we have and the different camera angles actually let us see more than we can see at the track,” he explained. “The racetrack is nice to look out the window at pit stops because you can see all of pit road. However, you can’t look out the window and call the race.”

“We’ve heard broadcasters talk about a spin that you don’t see on TV, and one thing that Adam really emphasized when we started doing this is that people at home can only see what’s on our screen. So it doesn’t do us any good to talk about anything that’s not happening with what they can see,” he elaborated.

McMurray’s comments reignited the debate and Denny Hamlin shared his thoughts on the most recent episode of Actions Detrimental. At the end of the episode, Hamlin talked about being in the booth for the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series for The CW, “Is there a booth or am I going to be in studio? I know fans-. Guys, please stop caring about [crap] that just doesn’t matter. It does not change your viewing experience for wherever the broadcasters are. It does not change your experience. As long as they do a good job, who cares? Stop it.”

“Do you know their studio, they have like so many different cameras,” he continued. “Listen, I’ve been in booths before and you can’t see [crap]. All you do is look at the monitor the whole time. You’re calling the race off the monitor because, by the way, you don’t want to be talking about something that’s not on TV for the people to see. It’s like when they said, ‘Look here, we’re running three-wide!’ And you only see two cars.”

Hamlin’s co-host then brought up the commentary about a possible caution for a Cody Ware wreck, Hamlin added, “What for? Well, we found a day later Cody Ware nearly died in turn 7.”

SiriusXM NASCAR Radio host Pete Pistone shared his thoughts on Hamlin’s comments writing on X, “Add this to our conversation on [The Morning Drive] this morning about a subset of fans that literally find something to complain about on a weekly basis – I’m well aware there are certainly things in the sport that aren’t perfect and should be made better – but it’s become exhausting.”


Dale Earnhardt Jr. then responded to him writing, “Imagine the 1979 Daytona 500 done from a studio in Charlotte.”

“I get that CW does a hell of a job. And I don’t mind that it’s done in studio. But for anyone to claim it makes no difference is disingenuous,” he concluded.

The 1979 Daytona 500 was the first 500-mile NASCAR race broadcast live flag-to-flag on national television (CBS). It saw Richard Petty win his 6th Daytona 500 beating Darrell Waltrip by a car length.

This is not the first time Junior has addressed this debate and controversy. In February 2024 following the Atlanta race, Junior said during an episode of The Dale Jr. Download, “I am always of the opinion that getting more cars on the screen is a good thing especially when all those cars are doing some things: racing, battling. The more cars you can put on the screen, the more I, as a broadcaster, can talk about. ‘Look at that. Look at that.’ And if they’re not on the screen I can’t say, ‘Hell of a battle right there!’ when you can’t even see it at home.”

He later added, “I am always of the opinion put as much on the screen as you can. I don’t want t be in the helicopter all race. I don’t want to be looking from the blimp the entire day, but especially on restarts we’ve got the whole field jumped up, we’re gonna have all kinds of chain reaction things happening. Something up front is going to affect the guy in 20th. Show me every car you can possibly me show on a restart for at least a lap and a half before I feel good enough that they’ve sorted it out. And then we can start to focus more on a specific group of cars.”

Speaking specifically to remote booths, he said, “If I continue to broadcast in NASCAR, I want to be at the race track. I’m never going to work a job where they’re like, ‘Man, we’re going to have you here in Charlotte and call the race from this remote location.’ I need to see the track. I need to see the energy. I need to feel the fans. All that really makes me better. I’m a fan. I want to be at the race watching it. I want to look out that window and see the race. Because, yeah, I’m watching program, I’m watching what you’re seeing at home, but I need to look and say, ‘Hey man, is the seventh place car catching the sixth place car? Is that where we need to take the cameras? And then I can talk to the producer and say, ‘I think there’s a great battle happening, or about to happen. Let’s try to get here in the next lap or two because this is developing.’ We want to put every battle on the screen.”

He went on to share how this is the case at tracks like Las Vegas especially during green flag runs, “You’re looking for battles!”

Additionally, in October 2024 when it was initially reported that The CW would call races remotely from North Carolina, Junior wrote, “I hope they do not.”

NEXT: Kurt Busch Questions NASCAR Not Penalizing His Brother While Hitting Ryan Preece With A Fine And Points Penalty

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Author: John Trent