The driver who will garner the biggest of the cheers, and very nearly nary a jeer, is Dale Earnhardt, Jr., who has won the fan voting for NASCAR’s most popular driver award eight consecutive years. It’s a title that is understandable, as Dale Jr. is certainly a legacy of stock car racing royalty. What’s not to be confused is the word ‘popular” with “best,” for Junior is rapidly cementing a reputation as the most overrated driver in motorsports.
Since the end of the 2006 season, Junior has won once - one solitary victory, the result of winning on fuel strategy determined in the pits, and, to be fair, a masterful drive to conserve – literally – every last drop of fuel. June 15 will mark the three year anniversary of that trip to victory lane in Michigan, despite driving for the marquee team of NASCAR, Hendrick Motorsports. With each passing lap, each lost race weekend, and each empty season of dashed hopes, Earnhardt’s legion of fans cheer louder and buy more 88 gear. He’s become an industry into himself, the “lovable loser,” the Chicago Cubs of Sundays in the south; 1,081 days and counting. That is, if anyone’s counting.
Did you hear the fans scream as Junior jumped into the lead with two laps to go in Charlotte last weekend? Hope; eternal optimism; the folly of fools. One minute later, did you hear the groans as he ran out of gas on the back stretch and coasted home in 7th place? The cheers and groans were easily audible, even over the roar of 30-plus 700 horsepower engines circling the track.
The winless efforts weren’t always the norm. Junior started racing full-time in the Sprint Cup series in 2000, resplendent in his Budweiser livery. He managed two victories in his maiden campaign, and followed that up with at least two victories each of the next three years. Then, in 2004, he had a breakout campaign, winning a career-high 6 races and contending for a championship.
Oddly enough, 2004 was also the year Earnhardt was burned severely in a sports car accident at Infineon Raceway, where we was moonlighting during a rare weekend off in NASCAR’s nearly year-around schedule. Coincidence? Some think not, feeling maybe he lost his nerve. I won’t go that far, for it takes a lot of nerve to buckle into a hunk of metal and drive 200 miles per hour 6 inches away from three other cars in the draft on the high banks of Talladega.
What can’t be mistaken is the opportunity bestowed on Junior every season. Perhaps in no sport is money better equated with success than motorsport. Simply put, speed is expensive, and the more money you have, the faster you will go. No one, no one, benefits from sponsorship greater than the series’ most popular driver, Junior.
Additionally, no one prepares better cars than Hendrick Motorsport, the organization behind the 5-time defending champion Jimmie Johnson, as well as stable mate and 4-time former champion Jeff Gordon. Since 1995, Rick Hendrick-owned cars have won 10 NASCAR Sprint Cup championships. Since 2008, Hendrick has fielded a car for Junior. The results: 120 starts, 2 pole positions, 15 top-five’s, and one victory.
In terms of “return on investment,” that equates to what is known in NASCAR circles; and, oddly and perhaps polar oppositely, Jewish delicatessens; as “bupkis.”
Be it spread too thin over commercial shoots, side businesses in restaurants and clubs, or ownership of his own JR Motorsports team, or age or talent or some other reason, the fact is that Earnhardt Jr. has under-performed for the past several years. With each passing race, the pressure mounts, despite the affection of his growing army of followers.
It’s time. Time to distinguish between royalty and reality. Time we stop referring to Junior as a real contender and an elite driver in NASCAR’s highest series. Time we recognize the proof points lie in his average finishes the past two years of 22nd and 21st.
Three years. It’s time for Junior to show fans he’s not overrated.
Swap some paint on Twitter @RayHartjen.
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