We have been told for years — many of them spent trying to find the No. 88 car somewhere in the back — that Dale Earnhardt Jr. is the personality that most drives NASCAR.
Well, he’s out front now. Will that give the sport the boost it so badly needs?
This Sprint Cup season has all the makings of a classic. Jeff Gordon and an Earnhardt are one-two in the series standings — priceless in both name and nostalgia value. Just the sound of that is like a favorite oldies tune.
Dale’s boy — the legacy, the golden child who somehow is going to be turning 40 in October — won a rain-hampered Daytona 500 to begin this year. He has won twice more, already eclipsing the victory total he had in his first six years with powerful Hendrick Motorsports.
Finally, performance might actually be catching up with his popularity. Earnhardt Jr. has spent too much of his career as an empty fire suit, an Anna Kournikova in a HANS device.
But after winning last week at Pocono, Jr. talked about how everything is coming together for him now, sounding all grown up. About time.
“I got my professional life good and the personal life’s doing good,” he said. “I’ve just learned and grown a lot in the last four or five years working with this group.”
Oddly, though, the Dale Jr. bump has been slow to show itself. NASCAR’s television ratings, in general, have continued to slide. Those for the second Pocono race were down from a year ago, despite the Q score of the winner.
The personalities are all lined up to make a loud noise as the long racing season winds down. Gordon, Dale Jr., Jimmie Johnson, Brad Keselowski, Matt Kenseth. (Just missing Tony Stewart to have the racing version of the Rat Pack going for the title).
If this in the short term doesn’t drum up some renewed interest in racing, what can?
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