Jr 88 Rules News

Five reasons Dale Earnhardt Jr. remains NASCAR's most popular driver

By: Jerry Bonkowski, Bleacher Report on January 8, 2013

LAT PHOTOGRAPHIC - Dale Earnhardt Jr. may be challenged for NASCAR's Most Popular Driver Award by Danica Patrick this season.

It's hard enough to win one election, let alone two. But there is one figure in NASCAR who transcends the sport, who has been its face for more than a decade and seemingly makes national news for even the smallest happenstance or change in his life.

He is to NASCAR what Michael Jordan was -- and still is, to a degree -- to the NBA, a pair of superstars known the world over. Go to a far away land like China, mention the NBA and Jordan's iconic name almost immediately still comes forth from respondents. Ditto with the red-haired wonder of stock car racing: even if they're not race fans and know only one thing about NASCAR, it's his name. To them, he IS NASCAR.

Of course, we're talking about Dale Earnhardt Jr.

But just how has Junior, who has just one NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victory in the past four years, been able to sustain as the sport's most popular personality for a decade?


Read more: http://www.autoweek.com/article/20130108/nascar01/130109890#ixzz2HPbY6QsR