Armed with a Sharpie in his left hand, Dale Earnhardt Jr. looped his signature across seemingly endless rows of diecast cars and stacks of hero cards bearing his likeness.
By Brian Czobat, AP
Dale Earnhardt Jr. is the favorite driver of 30% of NASCAR's fan base, far and away No. 1 over Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart.
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Meanwhile, he contemplated the chagrin of those for whom he has scribbled countless autographs.
Does NASCAR's nine-time most popular driver need to win to keep his massive fan base happy?
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"Yeah, I feel they deserve it," he told USA TODAY Sports during a commercial shoot Wednesday at Charlotte Motor Speedway. "That's what they want. I know what I expect as a (Washington) Redskins fan.
"So I put myself in their shoes, and I know how they feel. I believe they deserve a driver that can win more often than I have."
The evidence, though, suggests his massive following is as patient as it is loyal and perhaps eternally enamored with the son of a racing legend who often speaks with candor and has a gift for producing indelible moments at critical junctures in recent NASCAR history.
Friday marks four years since Earnhardt's most recentSprint Cup victory. Since that triumph at Michigan International Speedway, he has endured two of the worst seasons and the longest winless skid (143 races) of his career. Yet as he returns to Michigan on the cusp of a victory breakthrough (ranked second in points and among the fastest in practice Thursday on the repaved 2-mile oval), there has been little erosion in his popularity or clout among "Junior Nation," the self-proclaimed No. 88 Chevrolet devotees who spend millions annually on his merchandise and the products he endorses.
According to a NASCAR survey of its fan base, 30% still name Earnhardt as their favorite driver, far outdistancing the next two stars, Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart.
In October, Eanrhardt was ranked by Forbes as the seventh most valuable athlete brand in professional sports, ranking behind Tiger Woods, Roger Federer, Phil Mickelson,David Beckham, LeBron James and Kobe Bryant and ahead of any NFL or baseball player.
"He is such an icon of the sport, he's become bulletproof to performance," said Michigan track president Roger Curtis, who has worked in NASCAR marketing for two-plus decades. "It's amazing. I'm not taking a shot, but so many other drivers, their popularity would be based on performance. I can't tell you exactly why it's different for Dale Jr., but from the fans I talk to, he is a bridge between generations. Attractive to the hard-core fans but the name recognition that gets Gen X and Y interested."
Zak Brown, founder and CEO of Just Marketing International (which has represented numerous IndyCar, Formula One and NASCAR sponsors), said Earnhardt inherited much of his father's fan base, "which was massive" when the seven-time champion died on the last lap of the 2001 Daytona 500. But Brown said Earnhardt Jr. has created new legions of fans with a persona that often seems blissfully unconcerned with a salary estimated bySports Illustrated at more than $20 million annually.
"He comes across as a genuine, humble, nice guy," Brown said. "He seems very human and approachable. He's not caught up in his own stardom. He's a core NASCAR driver, a blue-collar guy. Even though he's a multigazillionaire, he doesn't flaunt that lifestyle, which would turn off some people."
Penske Racing driver Brad Keselowski lived on Earnhardt's 200-acre compound near Mooresville, N.C., while driving for his JR Motorsports Nationwide Series team and said his former employer's sway "shows the importance at the most basic level of being authentic to who you are and just being a good guy. Dale is certainly one of those, and it resonates."
"He does a great job not just positioning himself but actually being a simple man," Keselowski said. "I think our sport's fan base really appreciates that."
Throwback to NASCAR of old
A technophile who played about 200 hours of the Battlefield 3 video game on his computer during the offseason, Earnhardt doesn't seem like a throwback icon in a sport that was spawned by bootleggers outrunning the law.
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But he contrasts modern-day NASCAR, which has undergone a cultural and geographical metamorphosis in the last two decades as multimillion-dollar sponsorships have cleansed its rough-hewn roots in the South. NASCAR's Hall of Fame is based in Charlotte and the first race in its premier series was held there, but Earnhardt is the only full-time driver left who hails fromNorth Carolina.
Only four drivers in the series hail from states in the South, and none talks like Earnhardt, 37. He peppers his answers with loose grammar and the rural vernacular indigenous to the textile-mill workers who once filled his Kannapolis, N.C., hometown. In Junior-speak, it's not a 1955 Chevrolet, but a "fitty-five Chevy."
Racing consultant and former Charlotte Motor Speedway President Humpy Wheeler said Earnhardt is "the last remnant of the old NASCAR" because he personifies it "in speech, mannerism, dress and humility. What you see is what you get. He is as much a progeny of Junior Johnson as Dale Sr."
In a sport laden with sponsor identification, Earnhardt showed up for a news conference at Pocono Raceway last week in a plain white T-shirt.
"His popularity is a revolt against the Ivy League culture that some in the sport are trying to artificially create," said Wheeler, who has spent five decades in racing and has known Earnhardt virtually since birth. "He is the last of the good old boys. He makes no attempt to change anything about himself. Laid-back, drives a truck and never brags. Truly the Southern version of the boy next door. He is what a lot of fans are desperately hanging onto."
Many of them also are carrying an insatiable curiosity. Earnhardt is a self-described homebody who has shielded his off-track life from the public, particularly after the microscope grew large in the wake of his father's death.
In his 13th season, he has built enough trust with the media to parcel out some details — last December, he brought his girlfriend to an awards ceremony in Las Vegas, and he opened up his "Whisky River" replica Western town (replete with jail, saloon and as an homage to spaghetti Westerns) to several reporters in January.
But he said he is "still pretty private of where I go and what I do," making him a bit of an enigma even to those who work for him.
"He's a Southern boy who is kind of shy, and he loves racing," said Danica Patrick, who drives for Earnhardt in the Nationwide Series. "You don't get this preprogrammed feel from him. People like that. There's a little bit of elusiveness because he doesn't do a ton of interviews. So people are curious, 'What's Dale really like?' So whenever you hear him talk or read something about him, you're looking to see if you can find out something new. "
The revelations often have intriguing twists, too. In March, Earnhardt casually mentioned he had a "graveyard" of about 50 wrecked race cars littered around his property, and his latest addition would be the Chevrolet that Juan Pablo Montoya infamously crashed into a jet dryer at the Daytona 500.
"A lot of his personal life is in the shadows, but when it does come out, the newer fans say, 'He's just a cool dude,' " Curtis said. "He's that's mysterious friend that you're attracted to and don't really know, but you like hanging with him."
Saying what others can't
The perks of being the son of Dale Earnhardt stretch beyond inheriting a large fan base. There's also the inherent right to speak as freely as desired while facing fewer repercussions than other drivers who might have to toe the line in a series that sometimes is bleached by sponsor-driven political correctness.
Earnhardt admitted there are things he can say — recently he lobbied for NASCAR to consider cutting its schedule — that others can't, and the topics he chooses automatically gain more credence.
"I've always had that, even when I was young," he said. "It cut me a ton of breaks when it comes to being myself or speaking my mind. It depends on the sponsors, too. Some of the sponsors want you on this straight and narrow path. I've been able to do whatever within reason."
It was Earnhardt's interviews that made a fan for life of Dan Hodson, the owner of Sportscapes Construction in Red Oak, Texas. Hodson has followed NASCAR for 30 years but was turned off by Dale Earnhardt's arrogance. The first time Hodson. 42. heard Earnhardt Jr. talk he found him "extremely genuine, honest, a bit awkward and socially inept. He was shy but when asked a question, he didn't dodge it. He answered truthfully.
"He's the only guy on that circuit that has as much money and clout, but 100% of his fans think he's a regular guy who wants to buy discount beef jerky and eat at the local restaurant," Hodson said. "It resonates that he probably would fit right in as the No. 2 oil guy at the Grease Monkey. It comes across as he's got convictions and morals. I've seen drivers change because of public pressure, sponsor pressure. He doesn't do that."
Earnhardt seems to embrace his infallibility. After finishing eighth at Pocono, he joked that he intentionally slowed down in the pits when others were busted for speeding because his fans and the news media give him grief for his mistakes.
Many others drivers probably wouldn't have admitted to being cognizant of the criticism, and Earnhardt said it took two years in Cup not to take things personally.
"I don't want to be perceived as a complainer; I just know when I miss my pit stall or get popped for speeding, I hear about it," Earnhardt said. "I don't read every story on the Internet or go to every fan forum. It gets to me through friends (and the media).
"I don't want to be on television because of those things, because I feel I'm a good, smart race car driver and shouldn't make mistakes often. But when I do make mistakes, it gets a little attention. I just try to minimize that attention. So I don't know if I'm thinking about that at the exact moment I'm pulling onto pit road every time, but I know the repercussions I face are no fun."
Performance ultimately does matter
If Earnhardt were to win Sunday on Father's Day, it would evoke memories of his July 2001 victory at Daytona International Speedway in NASCAR's return to the track where his father died. It stands as the most memorable in a career of larger-than-life highlights.
He won the first race at Dover International Speedway after Sept. 11, 2001. When the 2004 Daytona 500 kicked off the era of a new title sponsor Sprint (then Nextel) with a visit from President George W. Bush, Earnhardt was the victor (and the recipient of a postrace call from the president, which he ended with, "Take it easy, man."). In a Nationwide race two years ago at Daytona, he won again in a one-off Chevy adorned with the No. 3 his father made famous.
"There are people who become legends because of what they did in one or two games," JMI's Brown said. "He's won at pivotal moments when everyone is cheering for him, and that keeps the buzz going for a long time. That does help carry his brand further."
Performance, though, does matter, particularly with Earnhardt driving for powerhouseHendrick Motorsports. After ending a two-year absence from the Chase for the Sprint Cup last year, he has 11 top-10 finishes in 14 races, putting him on pace for a personal record.
"He's competitive; he just doesn't win races," Brown said. "If he was running around in 35th, I don't think he'd be able to maintain the fan base."
That fan base, though, would like a win after a drought that's almost twice as long as his previous winless skid — a 76-race streak that ended four years ago at Michigan.
Curtis said Earnhardt's "persona will explode" if he exudes as much emotion as he did after the 2008 win.
"He was so happy when he won here, and I can't imagine the glow a few races after that," Curtis said. "I don't think he'll become this all-access, 24/7 personality, but I can't imagine all the new fans who'd be attracted."
Earnhardt admitted he's allowed himself to wonder about the day he wins again.
"We're getting closer and closer, so I daydream about it all the time," he said. "I just think it'll be a lot more release, a lot more relief and happiness. The guys I'm with and the team I'm with, we haven't experienced that together, and that'll be a great feeling to win for the first time with these guys. It'll just be an amazing experience."
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