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Earnhardt’s Personal Style Wins Fans, Focus May Finally Win Him A Championship

Charlotte, NC (June 20, 2011) – The guy hasn’t won a race in three years. He’s not the best looking man in the garage area. His interviews are sometimes disjointed as he struggles to find the right words to express what he is thinking.

So, how is Dale Earnhardt, Jr. the most popular driver in all of American motorsports?

Of course, the nano second, knee jerk response is to say he’s the son of NASCAR deity Dale Earnhardt. That’s too easy.

Here’s another thought – Earnhardt has earned his own legion of fans with an accountable, hard scrabble back-to-basics style.

Earnhardt, even with wrapped in his father’s fame, is his own man and has been for at least a decade now. In case you blinked along the way, ‘Jr.’ will be 37 in October. He’s no longer a ‘young gun’ by any means.

Despite all the obstacles he’s faced and detractors who write him off as just a legacy, Earnhardt has managed his life under the microscope well. He’s never dodging his place in or his responsibility to the sport as a NASCAR royalty blood heir. Win or lose, he’s been there to face the music and frankly, Earnhardt hasn’t had a lot of good to talk about in awhile.

That said, you gotta like a guy who will stand up and take the arrows when things aren’t going well. It can’t be comfortable knowing so many people rely on you to be successful in so many ways – from the sport and sanctioning body itself – to the five-year-old fan that is heartbroken because you ran out of gas on the last lap.

You have to respect a man who can take on all that – and manage your own personal disappointment to boot.

This year, Earnhardt and his followers have fared better. After two seasons of dashed expectations as part of the Hendrick house car superteam ranks with Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon and Mark Martin, Jr. finally seems to have the right combination of cars and crew. He also seems personally rejuvenated, driving hard and not giving up even when his car isn’t perfect.

So far, wins have been in reach, but haven’t quite materialized this year. Earnhardt’s finishing average of 10.7 over the first 15 Cup races has earned a third-place ranking in the points. That includes a 21st-place finish in Sunday’s race at Michigan after contact with Martin with less than 10 laps remaining sent Earnhardt’s car into the wall.

The incident ruined another solid finish for Earnhardt and he let his disappointment be known in his post-race comments.

“I never gave up. I mean even at the end when the car was beat all to hell we still wanted to try to get what we could at the end of the race,” Earnhardt said. “We tried to get as many spots as we can. Every point is a big deal out there. I try really hard to take care of people and try not to be careless and I don’t like putting up with carelessness and that really pissed me off what happened out there.”

Boy, if that didn’t sound like his old man, nothing did.

But it also sounds like after 13 seasons and 414 NASCAR Cup races, Jr. is finally focused on everything out his windshield. There’s no longer an eye on the back glass.

Everything is in front of him and don’t be surprised if he doesn’t take advantage of it. It’s not a stretch to think that a Hendrick car is going to win a lot of races and the championship again this season. Hell, we’ve all starred in that movie the last five years.

Right now, especially after Earnhardt’s post-race reaction Sunday, you can be sure the 88 bunch at HMS is saying why not us? After 25 years of writing sports stories and working on race teams, I can tell you they are stoked after what happened Sunday. They know that if they can maintain or better their third position in the points up to the final five races of the season, Rick Hendrick will throw everything he can – every resource available at HMS – into their championship bid.

Don’t get me wrong – I’m not rootin’ for Earnhardt to win the title. As a journalist, I try to stay as objective as possible. But if Earnhardt and the 88 start rolling and win the 2011 NASCAR Cup championship, don’t say we didn’t tell you so.

If that happens, Earnhardt’s already over the top popularity will spike even more. And that we can root for because it would be a good thing for everyone in motorsports, not just ‘Jr. Nation.’

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