Dale Earnhardt Jr. says short-track speed skating is 'NASCAR on ice'

NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt Jr., who is in Pyeongchang working with NBC's broadcast team, revealed his favorite sport of the Olympics is short-track speed skating, comparing it to NASCAR. "This is just like NASCAR on ice, I swear," Earnhardt said in an interview with Ted Robinson and Apolo Ohno. "It's so aggressive I can't believe it. So much action. It's quickly becoming my favorite sport this week."

Short Track SPEED skating. @DaleJr joins Ted Robinson and @ApoloOhno at #PyeongChang2018 #shorttrack pic.twitter.com/JuwaVVqA5V
— NBC Sports PR (@NBCSportsPR) February 22, 2018

In speed skating, the athletes skate around the track competing for the fastest times. In events like the team pursuit, the squad skates in teams of three and have to protect each other from opponents closing in on them. Earnhardt compared the strategy and the risks to the sport he's most familiar with — NASCAR.

"It's really interesting and there's a lot of similarities, a lot of gamesmanship and the competitiveness between all the skaters and who's going to make the move," Earnhardt explained. "I mean all that sort of chess-match strategy, it plays out similarily on the race track." There's also the dangers that comes with both sports. In NASCAR, one wrong move can lead to a scary crash. Similarly in short track, if one athlete falls down they can take the rest of the field with them and they risk the blade of a skate cutting them.

"The danger is real," Earnhardt said. "You see when someone makes the slightest mistake it takes them out of the event and it's usually a pretty hard crash."
Earnhardt may not be in a race car, but he appears ready to take on a new sport as he told Robinson and Ohno, "I'm ready to learn. Let's do it.