Dale Earnhardt Jr. on Carson Kvapil: ‘Dude has amazing racecraft’

At Dover, Carson Kvapil got behind the wheel of Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s No. 88 NASCAR Xfinity Series car and put on a hell of a show. Kvapil started P26 and ended up finishing P2. He lost to Ryan Truex on the final restart of the race.

Carson Kvapil, son of Truck Series champion Travis Kvapil, has been working his way through the ranks of stock car racing. Kvapil is a two-time champion in the CARS Tour Late Model Stock division. So, his talent is obvious.

The effort at Dover was enough to impress many in NASCAR. During the race Kvapil didn’t get too far ahead of himself. He laid back, learned the track, and let it come to him. In two Xfinity Series starts, Kvapil has two top-5 finishes. He might just steal a win later this season.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. was more than happy with the young driver’s efforts. He’s been in the JR Motorsports program for a few years now. It’s all starting to come together.

“Xfinity Series, Carson Kvapil, in his second start driving for JR Motorsports, almost wins the race,” Earnhardt said on the Dale Jr. Download. “Dude has amazing racecraft. Carson is a good example of a driver that I think a lot of teams would love to hire based upon his ability to not get flustered and overexcited. The late restarts at Martinsville, a young driver screws that up. I screw that up! You put me, 1997 me, in that situation and I don’t do the job that Carson does.

“Same thing for this past weekend at Dover. All the chaos right? The late restarts, sure, he didn’t pull it off. He got beat on the final few restarts and it cost him the win but his racecraft and his ability to like take care of the car and get it to the end of the race and then not screw up and wreck or not spin himself out on the last few restarts trying too hard. That’s what I love about this kid.”