Martinsville Speedway is famously known for its collisions, which often lead to confrontations among the drivers. Dale Earnhardt Jr. is aware of that, but he had a problem with Richard Childress driver Jesse Love's confrontation with his JR Motorsports driver Rajah Caruth during the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race on Sunday.

The collision took place in the final three laps of the race when the two rising NASCAR stars were battling it out of sixth place. Caruth’s  #88 made contact with Love’s  #2 car coming out of the corner. Love approached Caruth for a conversation after the race, but Earnhardt Jr. noticed something about the Childress driver, which he brought up in the latest episode of his podcast.

"Jesse drives the way he doesn't like to get driven. I like Jesse. I don't want to give him the wrong idea," said Earnhardt Jr. on his podcast. "Jesse races hard, and there's nothing wrong with it, but when it comes around, he doesn't like it."

Earnhardt Jr., who has raced at Martinsville previously, gave his take on racing at the track.

“When I would go to Martinsville, I would look forward to getting run into," Junior remarked.

Love certainly did not appreciate the bump as he believed it affected his finish. The two drivers resolved their conflict through a lengthy animated conversation.

Jesse Love and Rajah Caruth share their perspective on the incident

Post-race reporter Noah Lewis caught up with the two drivers to get a better understanding of their conversation.

“Raj just shipped me, and ended up taking my 5th place day to finishing outside the top 10," said Love. "It didn’t work out for him either. He ends up getting crashed... I'm definitely frustrated because we worked our guts out to have a good day here.”

Caruth took accountability for the incident in his post-game interview and gave his account of what happened.

“I was in the wrong there," said Caruth. "We had contact earlier, and I didn’t need to hit him either time. I was going to finish 7th or 8th and be fine, and I took myself out of a good points spot."

The two drivers are certainly going to be involved in a lot of races in their careers. Both are extremely talented and would want to race to the finish line instead of being involved in any clash outside the track.

Read more at the RFK Racing Digest!

Written by

Chionia Libania Colaco