December 28, 2006

By Rebecca Gladden

Rebecca Gladden

Is Dale Earnhardt Jr. overrated??

The answer is yes - at least according to several thousand people who voted in the "2006 Most Overrated Athletes" poll being conducted on AOL Sports.

The survey - which can be found at http://sports.aol.com/specials/2006_most_overrated - simply asks participants, "In 2006, who was the most overrated athlete?"

There are ten pre-selected individuals or teams to choose from, and AOL Sports notes that "poll results are not scientific and reflect the opinions of only those users who chose to participate."

However, with over 125,000 votes cast at press time, the results are as follows:

Bode Miller                      18% 
Michelle Wie                     17% 
Ben Roethlisberger               14% 
Danica Patrick                   11% 
Indianapolis Colts                8% 
Dale Earnhardt Jr.                8% 
U.S. Men's National Soccer Team   8% 
Randy Johnson                     6% 
Edgerrin James                    3% 
Stephon Marbury                   3% 
Phil Mickelson                    2% 
Andy Roddick                      1% 

According to the survey: "NASCAR's most popular driver is simply known as Junior. He's got Madison Avenue looks, boyish charm and the talent to win as many championships as his father. What's that? He hasn't won any championships yet? Oh... right... that's why he's on our most overrated list."

Of course the term "overrated" is completely subjective. While there is no explanation of its intended meaning with regards to this poll, the dictionary defines it as "to overestimate the merits or rate too highly."

Presumably in the context of the AOL survey, the pollster considers sports figures overrated when the amount of publicity they generate exceeds their overall performance.

As the poll points out, some of the nominees have yet to win a single event in their chosen sport. Indy Racing League driver Danica Patrick, for example, has never won an IRL race; LPGA golfer Michelle Wie has yet to win a pro golf event.

But that is not the case with Earnhardt Jr.

Although he has not won a NASCAR Cup Series Championship, Earnhardt Jr. has won plenty of races.

In seven full seasons as a Cup driver, Junior has notched 17 wins, 69 top-five finishes and 108 top-tens. He has led over 5000 laps and finished in the top five in year-end points for four of the past five seasons.

In the year 2000, Dale Earnhardt Jr. competed for Cup series Rookie of the Year honors with six other drivers: Matt Kenseth, Dave Blaney, Scott Pruett, Stacy Compton, Mike Bliss and Ed Berrier.

Kenseth won the ROTY title, but of the seven rookies, only he and Earnhardt have been full-time Cup competitors every year since 2000.

By way of comparison, Kenseth has won a Cup championship, having done so in 2003.

Earnhardt hasn't won a title, but he has more victories and more top-five finishes than Kenseth.

That's not to take anything away from either driver. Kenseth is clearly a talented driver - but so is Earnhardt.

The point is that the two have comparable records overall. Yet when was the last time you heard anyone ask if Matt Kenseth is "overrated"?

Obviously in Earnhardt's case the imbalance in the hype/performance equation is on the side of too much hype - not too little performance. And Junior - by nature not a publicity hound - cannot be blamed for that.

As son of late NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt, Dale Jr. will always be the focus of intense scrutiny.

But as the poll itself points out, Junior garners attention in part because of the winning combination of traits he brings to the table, including his "Madison Avenue looks and boyish charm." He has been voted NASCAR's most popular driver for four years straight, and was recently named most marketable auto racing driver in a Sports Business Journal survey - beating out Danica Patrick, Jeff Gordon and Michael Schumacher among others.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. will probably win a Cup title at some point in his career.

But even if he doesn't, he would simply join the ranks of other exceptional NASCAR racers who never won a Cup series championship.

See: Mark Martin.

The thoughts and ideas expressed by this writer or any other writer on Insider Racing News, are not necessarily the views of the staff and/or management of IRN.