For Dale Earnhardt Jr., flying cars shouldn't be in NASCAR's Daytona future

Updated at 6:07 p.m. ET

Dale Earnhardt Jr. knows where he wants his car — with all four wheels on the track.

He also knows there are times when racing at Daytona and Talladega becomes a problem of aerodynamics. He saw it first-hand last year when Austin Dillon's airborne car crashed into the catch fence at race's end. And he'd rather not see it happen again.

MORE: Looking back at Dillon's crash | Here comes the rain again | Schedule

"It was frightening," Earnhardt told media members Thursday at Daytona, where he and fellow Sprint Cup drivers were preparing for this weekend's race. "In the [rear-view] mirror it was hard to tell what part of his car got into the fence. I just was worried about Austin, hoping he was OK. I think that was everyone's initial reaction. Watching it from the mirror, I couldn't tell whether the bottom of the car or the top hit the fence."

Dillon walked away from the remnants of his wrecked car with an experience he never wants to repeat. Yet at NASCAR's two superspeedways, Daytona and Talladega, where cars would hit 210 mph were it not for restrictor plates, physics conspire to turn racecars into hapless toys tossed end over end.

And Earnhardt has been around racing long enough to know there's little to prevent that from happening. It happened three times in May's Talladega race, and it could well happen again during Saturday night's Daytona race.

"Cars are going to get in the air at these race tracks," Earnhardt said. "In certain circumstances, they'll get airborne anywhere, really. In a bad situation, there's just as much potential here as there is at Michigan or anywhere else."I know it's been a topic of discussion at the plate tracks, particularly after Talladega. I'm hopeful NASCAR is looking at ways to keep the cars on the ground."

Dangerous, yet thrilling for everyone not directly involved.

NASCAR decided against making rules changes for the Daytona race, the Coke Zero 400. For Junior, that's OK.

"It's two different tracks," he said. "Hopefully, that will play a role in keeping things a little safer for the drivers.

"We definitely didn't like what we saw at Talladega. We'd rather not get upside-down if we don't have to."

He'll get few arguments.

Earnhardt won last year's race, one of his four career victories at Daytona. He knows what it takes to win restrictor-plate races, where packs of cars get turned into scrap in the blink of an eye.

"You've got to put yourself in some pretty compromising situations that are touch-and-go," he said. "You've got to put yourself in some situations that are pretty sketchy if you want to win the race."

Going upside down won't work.

Source: For Dale Earnhardt Jr., flying cars shouldn't be in NASCAR's Daytona future