Mr popular, and Chad the skeptic.....LOL!!!

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MoMike

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Dale Earnhardt Jr. most popular driverEmail Print Comments221 By David Newton
ESPN.com
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LAS VEGAS -- Despite struggles on the track, Dale Earnhardt Jr. won NASCAR's most popular driver award for the eighth straight year.




Earnhardt


The award was presented to the Hendrick Motorsports driver during Thursday's National Motorsports Press Association Myers Brothers luncheon at the Bellagio.
Earnhardt is closing in on the record 10 straight most popular driver awards won by Bill Elliott from 1991 to 2000. Elliott is the all-time winner of the award with 16, followed by Richard Petty with 10, Earnhardt with eight and Bobby Allison with seven.
Earnhardt won despite finishing 21st in points and missing the Chase for the second straight year and third time in four seasons. He is in the midst of a 93-race losing streak dating back to Michigan in 2008.
Team owner Rick Hendrick announced last week that he was moving Earnhardt into the same shop with five-time defending Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson and pairing him with Jeff Gordon crew chief Steve Letarte.


Gordon will now share a shop with Mark Martin and have Alan Gustafson as his crew chief.

Johnson's crew chief, Chad Knaus, said it's "hard to say how it's going to affect us."

He also said change is good and he's "definitely looking forward to having Dale as a part of the 48-88 shop."

"It's definitely got some potential," Knaus said.
 
Did you see this part?

http://sports.espn.go.com/rpm/nascar/cup/news/story?id=5876812

LAS VEGAS -- Despite Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s struggles on the track, Hendrick Motorsports has begun negotiating a contract extension for NASCAR's most popular driver.

Team owner Rick Hendrick told ESPN.com of his plans Thursday after Earnhardt was named the sport's most popular driver for the eighth straight year during the National Motorsports Press Association Myers Brothers luncheon at the Bellagio.

Dale JR is the new Paul Menard.
 
Can we start voting now so that Bill won't lose the record?
 
Can we start voting now so that Bill won't lose the record?
Bill probably would have won it for 11 straight years, but he bowed out so that Earnhardt the senior could win after his death.

I have been a huge Elliott fan all these years, but even I know that the popularity vote isn't a true picture of popularity. I would say though that Earnhardt the junior probably has the most fans in the stands these days. It's the name. If his name were Johnson or Smith, he'd be sitting on the sidelines these days instead of driving a stock car.
 
Bill probably would have won it for 11 straight years, but he bowed out so that Earnhardt the senior could win after his death.

I have been a huge Elliott fan all these years, but even I know that the popularity vote isn't a true picture of popularity. I would say though that Earnhardt the junior probably has the most fans in the stands these days. It's the name. If his name were Johnson or Smith, he'd be sitting on the sidelines these days instead of driving a stock car.

No doubt, he would have continued his streak had he not bowed out.

What does the award really mean? It's nothing more than fans voting for their favorite driver, right? It obviously has nothing to do with 'on track' success and we didn't have to wait to see Dale Jr's losing seasons to find that out. That was proven back when Bill was stacking up those consecutive Most Popular awards. Heck, even he went for a run of 193 winless races between the 1994-2000 seasons yet continued to win the award along the way. Its been a meaningless award since it's inception. Heck, why not just publish the list of souvenir sales in descending monetary order. Isn't that the true measurement of popularity in NASCAR?
 
No doubt, he would have continued his streak had he not bowed out.

What does the award really mean? It's nothing more than fans voting for their favorite driver, right? It obviously has nothing to do with 'on track' success

Same with the "ATT" fastest pit crew shown every week...What a joke
 
Same with the "ATT" fastest pit crew shown every week...What a joke

Exactly correct. I couldn't think of the name. How the heck do you vote for the fastest pit crew? Don't they see how idiotic that is? :confused:

I've got an idea..... I wonder if they can come up with a promotion where we can vote for the winner of the race? :growl:
 
I've got an idea..... I wonder if they can come up with a promotion where we can vote for the winner of the race? :growl:

Why not? We seem to want to vote on who the real champion should be, depending on which point system holds more merit.....:D
MoMike
 
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