Dale Earnhardt Jr. is gone, so who will be the most popular driver in NASCAR?
By Nick Tylwalk
NASCAR needs a new face, someone to cheer for in the post-Junior era it’s about to enter, and a few candidates stand above the rest in that regard.
When Dale Earnhardt Jr. crossed the start/finish line at Homestead on Sunday, it was the end of an era in the NASCAR Cup Series. Not because Junior’s restrictor plate wizardry was going to be missed — though it will — or because his shoes will be impossible to fill in the 88, as Alex Bowman looks like he has plenty of talent.
No, it’s because Earnhardt Jr. has had a stranglehold on the Most Popular Driver Award, which is presented by the National Motorsports Press Association but voted on completely by the fans. It’s a measure of popularity in the most precise way in that regard, and Dale Jr. has won it 14 years in a row, with a 15th a certainty when this year’s results are revealed.
Since Earnhardt won’t be eligible next year, someone else is going to claim the honor for the first time since Bill Elliott in 2002. The NMPA doesn’t make the exact voting numbers public but does reveal the top 10 vote-getters each year. It’s interesting to note that of the top 10 in 2016, Carl Edwards and Tony Stewart are already gone from the sport, and Danica Patrick and Matt Kenseth are soon to follow.
That makes the pool of potential Most Popular Driver candidates that much smaller, but with past top-10 finishes and some common sense, we’ve identified five drivers who should vie to be the first post-Junior winner in 2018.