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Dale Earnhardt Jr. doesn’t fight because everyone, including momma, is watching

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The last-lap wreck and pit road confrontation between Joey Logano and Kyle Busch ultimately overshadowed Martin Turex Jr.'s win, but the NASCAR America crew isn't convinced blame can be placed on either driver.

Everyone and their mother is talking about the post-race fight Sunday between Kyle Busch and Joey Logano.

That’s exactly why you’ll never see Dale Earnhardt Jr. throw a punch, at least not in public.

“I would not have done the same thing,” Earnhardt said on the latest episode of the “Dale Jr. Download.” “I know, maybe more than Kyle, there’s a lot of cameras. There’s a lot of people watching. You’ve got social media. You’ve got people getting this content a whole bunch of different ways. If you go up and punch a guy in the face, that’s going to be on TV all week.”

The most noteworthy video of the fight came not from TV cameras, but from NASCAR journalist Jeff Gluck. The original video has been viewed on YouTube 1.8 million times as of Tuesday afternoon.

“You’re going to show up at the racetrack on Friday or Thursday next week and you’re going to be asked about it everyday,” Earnhardt continued. “This will probably go on for a couple of weeks. NASCAR will take this content and it will be on every show that they do, every commercial. So you’ll see it over and over and over. NASCAR will take this fight and use it as an advertisement. ‘You got to come out see what happens at the next race.’ They will wear it out.”

MORE: NASCAR on NBC podcast: Kyle Busch vs Joey Logano.

Earnhardt questioned whether Busch wants to be in the position of having to be constantly be asked by the media - and family - about the fight.

“Momma’s watching, you don’t want to upset your momma,” Earnhardt teased. “She’s just a phone call away.”

Earnhardt went on to share some stories of the “few altercations” he’s had in racing career.

“I’ve never been in a fight like that,” Earnhardt said. “I’m not trying to play out my stuff on the main stage.”

The Hendrick Motorsports driver told the story of him and crew chief Tony Eury Sr. getting into it with Tony Stewart’s crew chief after some rough driving between the two at Pikes Peak International Raceway in the Xfinity Series in the late ‘90s.

“We got called to the hauler after the race,” Earnhardt said. “Tony Sr., he’s really fiery, got a bad temper. He was very upset. Tony Stewart comes in there. Tony’s fine. I could tell from the moment he walked in he wasn’t going to be a problem. But his crew chief ... this guy comes walking in and the minute the door opens I can hear this guy talking and yapping. And he’s talking about me being a daddy’s boy and riding my daddy’s coat tails. I went over to Tony Stewart to get to this guy and Tony Sr. went under Tony Stewart;s (arm) to get to the guy.

“I got a hold of the guy, grabbed his shirt, swung and as I swung, he came out of his shirt. It ripped off. Tony Stewart’s just kind of there, kind of tangled up in this unwittingly. Nobody punched anybody.”

Later, after a story about calling Todd Bodine “a cue-ball headed fool” and wielding a jack handle, Earnhardt recalled a story from his late-model days, which resulted in his co-host calling him the “Kyle Busch of Hickory Motor Speedway.”

“We had the entire grandstands at Hickory Motor Speedway pissed off at us one week,” Earnhardt said. “We started last in this race called the Bobby Isaac Memorial. We were running third with about 20 to 30 laps to go. I got black flagged for passing a lapped car under caution. The guy was waving me by, which was totally legit. I didn’t think it was fair. The guy who was my crew chief-owner, says ‘pull in, this is bulls---. We’re getting out.’ So I pull in with a few laps left in the race. The whole grandstand is booing me at me. ... Hickory is little bit 50-50 for Earnhardts. There’s a lot of Jarrett fans up there.

“We had ripped our fender off in the race, so it’s in the pits now. My crew chief or one of my crew members throws the fender onto the track, so they’re red flagged at this moment. Cleaning up a wreck. We throw a fender on the track. More boos. I flipped the bird from the pits to the booth. I know the scorer because I changed his oil at Dale Earnhardt Chevrolet. It obviously now looks like I’m flipping off the fans. Now the boos are turning into objects, cans and bottles.

“The guy comes to the dealership like a week later to get his oil changed and me and him have words. That kind of led to my firing from the dealership.”

Listen to the rest of Earnhardt’s stories and the podcast here.

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