Dale Earnhardt Jr. is not a fan of the redesigned Phoenix Raceway circuit.

With three races remaining, Kyle Larson holds a 5-point lead over Christopher Bell, with Chase Briscoe 24 points back, and Denny Hamlin 31 points off the top of the NASCAR standings. Last week at Phoenix Raceway, Tyler Reddick took the checkered flag and won the Freeway Insurance 500.

Watching on, Earnhardt was frustrated at the layout of the track. When Phoenix Raceway was reconfigured in 2011, the former driver questioned the decision to pave and bank the section, warning that drivers would have little reason to follow the full racing line.

Over a decade and a half on, drivers are still cutting across the apron as seen last week. NASCAR is now looking into changes ahead of the 2027 season, but Earnhardt believes the damage has already been done.

"The idea to take the back straightaway, which is now the front straightaway, and bank it, it just infuriates me," he said on his Dale Jr. Download podcast. "I just wish a lot of these tracks knew enough to leave well enough alone and not think that they've got to go take something that's working and it's got a long tradition or history or has, you know, and change it to something completely different.

"And so here we are. Cars have been cutting that front straightaway."

Ultimately, Earnhardt believes the changes altered a track with an established identity while creating a shortcut that drivers now regularly use. The 2011 redesign widened the frontstretch from 52 to 62 feet, widened the dogleg, tightened its turn radius, and introduced variable banking.

The grass bordering the infield apron was also replaced with asphalt, giving drivers the option to cut across the dogleg rather than follow its full curve. Phoenix Raceway underwent a second major renovation in 2017, costing $178 million.

Earnhardt has long been outspoken about the flimsy application of track limits at Phoenix.

In August 2025, he responded to a fan asking about track limits by writing: "We don't seem to care about cutting the apron at Phoenix. This has been what it is for a few years now. Shoulda never paved it. Coulda paved Bristol with all that asphalt."

The NASCAR Cup Series Chase continues with the YellaWood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway on Sunday, Oct. 25.