Dale Earnhardt Jr. hasn’t been a full-time NASCAR driver since the last race of the 2017 season. Nearly two years later he remains the most visible and known personality in the sport.
Earnhardt Jr. has hardly been away from the NASCAR world since hanging up his helmet after the Homestead-Miami Speedway season finale in 2017. He made a seamless transition into the broadcasting world as part of the NBC Sports NASCAR team.
Like Jeff Gordon to FOX when he retired from driving, Earnhardt Jr. has turned into one of the best analysts in all of sports. His knowledge and passion of NASCAR is matched only by Earnhardt Jr.’s enthusiasm on each broadcast and he has helped make NBC’s coverage resonate so well with viewers.
But Earnhardt Jr.’s NASCAR footprint is not just limited to his network broadcasting duties. There’s his weekly “Dale Jr. Download” podcast, created by his Dirty Mo Media production company. Earnhardt Jr. is also a team co-owner with sister Kelley in JR Motorsports, which fields three full-time Xfinity Series teams. He is actively involved in various promotions around the sport as well as numerous advertising and marketing campaigns for a variety of initiatives.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. is indeed very much the face of NASCAR.
This past weekend at Darlington is a perfect example of just why. There was Earnhardt Jr., handling the difficult task of addressing the assembled media to share his thoughts and feelings about the frightening airplane crash he and his family survived just days earlier. He jumped into one of his JR Motorsports machines and drove to a fifth-place finish in Saturday’s Xfinity Series race. Then he transitioned into his NBC responsibilities at one point in Sunday’s Southern 500 telecast leading the broadcast alongside Kyle Petty and Dale Jarrett.
In many ways it’s understandable why Earnhardt Jr. remains so visible, marketable and generally embraced by the sport. Certainly his last name can’t be discounted in at least some of this discussion. But it goes beyond simply his lineage and family’s place in NASCAR history.
The sport is still trying to fill the void left by the exodus of so many stars and recognizable names over the last few years. In addition to Earnhardt Jr. and Gordon that list includes Tony Stewart, Matt Kenseth, Carl Edwards, Danica Patrick, Greg Biffle, Kasey Kahne, Jamie McMurray, Casey Mears and Bobby Labonte just to name a few. It is impossible to replace that kind of name recognition and in many cases star power overnight.
The current crop of driver standouts remains a mix of veterans and youngsters. While talent is not in short supply, personalities and names that transcend the sport are. Only time and success from the much ballyhooed youth movement will bridge that gap.
In the meantime there’s Earnhardt Jr., driving cars, owning teams, broadcasting races, starring in commercial and advertising campaigns and even adorning the cover of pre-season NASCAR preview publications.
The “Junior Effect” indeed.
The opinions expressed here are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the positions of the Motor Racing Network.
