NASCAR fans rip social media post for obvious reason, Jeff Gordon's biggest regret & race wife hits the beach
Monday Morning Pit-Stop is a weekly NASCAR column that runs on OutKick.com and Fox News Digital. If you're looking for a normal NASCAR recap, go check out insufferable ESPN ... assuming they still know NASCAR exists.
First Monday of August and we don't even have a NASCAR race to complain about today. What are we supposed to do now?
Feels weird, doesn't it? The NASCAR Cup Series season is the longest in all of sports, with — by far — the fewest down time. The fellas get two(ish) off weeks a season, give or take, and that's about it from February through October.
So when the series is off, it's a bit of a shock to the system. It just doesn't happen. Hand up, I actually forgot it was an off week yesterday afternoon and started reflexively looking for the race at around 3 p.m.
I couldn't take anymore of the trans talk from the WNBA, and I needed something to put on while I yanked weeds from the back deck.
Crickets. Nothing. Dead air.
You never know what you have have till it's gone.
Anyway, this award-winning (allegedly) column doesn't take weeks off, so we're here, ready to turn the page toward the rest of the season. Daytona is just a few weeks away, you know.
How should we fill the space? How about this social media post from NASCAR that absolutely blew up the internet over the weekend? Fans were quick to call them out, and I don't blame them.
What else? I've got Jeff Gordon giving us a rare insight into his relationship with the late, great Dale Earnhardt, Samantha Busch reminiscing on some early days with Kyle, and McCall Gaulding spending the off week in Costa Rica.
Sound good? Good!
Four tires, enough fuel to get us to Iowa, and maybe a few more off weeks for the fellas throughout the year, because two(ish) ain't enough ... Monday Morning Pit-Stop — the 'NASCAR Finally Goes Viral, But The Double Standard Is Glaring' edition — is LIVE!
There it is! That's the post that set the internet ablaze this weekend.
Good for NASCAR for being part of the news cycle on an off weekend, though. Credit where it's due. Bad PR is still PR.
Just ask the WNBA.
That above moment is from a decade ago (time flies!), when Cole Custer sprinted across the track and attacked John Hunter Nemechek after the two wrecked each other at the finish. I can't believe it's been 10 years since that moment.
I'm tell you, folks, you blink and a decade has passed. Lordy.
Anyway, it was an iconic moment in NASCAR history (not really), and, for some reason, the interns who run the main account posted it Friday. Naturally, it went mega-viral to the tune of nearly 6 million views, with big-time personalities such as Pat McAfee even reposting it:
Again, PR is PR, and when you get Pat McAfee to repost a 10-year-old truck race on a random Saturday in August, you're doing something right.
That being said, hardcore fans were QUICK to point out the double standard by NASCAR — and it's one that I've pointed out for years.
NASCAR routinely promotes this stuff on its social media accounts. Remember the infamous Kyle Busch-Ricky Stenhouse Jr. fight a few years back? The social media team(s) gobbled that up ... for days! They milked it for all it was worth.
At the same time, though, the sanctioning body will also A) fine drivers for this behavior, B) dock them points, C) sometimes suspend them, and D) discourage it entirely on the track.
You can't have your cake and eat it, too!
I could go on and on. Seriously, NASCAR fans are nothing if not consistent in their bitching and moaning.
Look, I get it. It seems odd to promote this stuff off the track, but actively discourage it on the track and after races. That being said, the social media team and the actual folks who run the sport are in two very separate buildings. Hell, I'm on even sure they're on the same property!
Two different bottom lines, and two very different goals. I see it here at OutKick all the time. The social team's job is to create content, and clicks, and engagement. They don't care about the Xs and Os of stuff and how the sausage is made. They care about the impressions.
That being said, I also think NASCAR should just let this stuff happen and leave it alone. Let the boys police themselves — on and off the track.
When was the last time a NASCAR social media post got 6 million pageviews? Probably something to consider.
OK, let's move this class along ...
Speaking of the good old days of NASCAR — when men were MEN! — let's check in with Jeff Gordon and ... Dale Earnhardt?
"If I had time with him again before we lost him, what would I have said to him? What would I have asked him?" Gordon said last week on the 'Bussin With The Boys' podcast.
"I definitely would've said, 'Hey, '95 when we were going for the championship, how much of that was just total bulls–t? It was getting under my skin. I would do an interview, and they go, 'We were just talking to Dale, and Dale said Rainbow Warrior, Wonder Boy, and all these nicknames he had for me.
"'He can't win the championship, what are they going to do, serve milk at the championship? I didn't want to get involved in that. And I kinda wish I had a little bit more, because I do think he was doing it because he knew it was working.
"Not just to get under my skin, but it was working for the media, it was working for NASCAR, and the growth and the fans.
"I think that's what I'd love to know is, how much of that was manufactured?"
Dale, by the way, would've probably loved NASCAR's post from over the weekend. Like Jeff said, Dale knew what he was doing. He knew what worked, and what played on TV, and what lit fires. He knew how to get eyeballs to the screen, and, more importantly, how to keep 'em there.
The Dale Earnhardt-Jeff Gordon rivalry from the late 1990s was peak NASCAR, in my opinion. That's when the sport was exploding. When it was bigger than the NFL, if you believe that.
And yes, Jeff should've engaged a little more. Duh. Always engage, folks.
Hope every driver in the garage reads that today.
OK, two more quickies on the way out. First? Samantha Busch has been slowly returning to social media since Kyle's death two months ago (goodness), and it's a gut-punch of a post every single time.
After last week's race at Indy, Samantha revealed that's where her and Kyle first met nearly 20 years ago:
"These photos were taken later that year in 2007, and looking at them now, I see two kids completely caught up in the excitement of falling in love, with absolutely no idea what was ahead of us," she wrote. "We grew up together. We built a life together. Through every season, every challenge, and every dream, we just kept choosing each other.
"I look at these pictures and wish I could tell that 21-year-old girl to soak up every single second. She never could have imagined how beautiful our life would become, or that one day she’d be wishing for just one more day with you."
Goodness gracious. Like I said, just a punch straight to the gut. I can't believe it's been two months. Wonder what Kyle would've thought of NASCAR's post over the weekend?
OK, that's it for today. Good work, everyone. We made it through the final NASCAR off week of 2026.
Zane Smith's wife, McCall Gaulding, checks in from Costa Rica, and takes us home.
See you at Iowa.