March 27, 2010
By Brenda Benedict
Test your knowledge of Dale Earnhardt Junior by answering the following question:
Dale Earnhardt Junior is...
A. The most popular NASCAR driver
B. The highest paid NASCAR driver
C. Chase Davis in last week's Handy Manny episode
D. 8th in points right now-his highest in 48 races
E. All of the above
If you picked E. you are correct.
NASCAR's most popular driver is also NASCAR's highest paid driver. Forbes magazine released figures this week putting Junior's annual income at $30 million. His closest competition is Jeff Gordon at $27 million and Jimmie Johnson at $23 million. This amount includes salary, purses and income from endorsements and the licensing of his name.
Forbes also ranked Earnhardt, Gordon and Johnson's team, Hendrick Motorsports as the most valuable team in NASCAR at $350 million besting their closest competition, Roush Fenway Racing who came in at $238 million.
This week Junior got more good news when he broke into the top ten the Power Ranking. His 8th place was major improvement after a 14th place ranking just the week before. And Earnhardt deserves this ranking after Sunday's near disaster at Bristol.
Earnhardt Jr. was running in the top ten when he was slapped with a pit road speeding penalty that dropped him down to the back of the pack. That is when he seemed to be frustrated with his crew chief, Lance McGrew. When McGrew implored Junior not to "lay down on me", Junior answered with a profanity-laced tirade.
Junior explained his response "When we're running pretty good and you can almost reach that top-five, or see yourself almost in a position to get a win, and it gets snapped away from you that quick, man, it's hard to bite your tongue. Running my mouth, that's my pop-off valve. It gives me a little bit of relief so I could get back to what I was doing. It's open for interpretation, I guess."
But Junior did not give up and quietly drove to the front finishing a respectable 7th place in spite of the penalty.
Earnhardt is beginning to drive like his legion of fans have long believed he could. I believe his radio sparring with McGrew is a sign of the passion that he is beginning to show and it is helping him stay focused when something goes wrong. It is this stay-with it attitude that will help him to maintain his lead over fellow Hendrick's drivers Gordon and Martin in the upcoming week.
Earnhardt Jr's prospects look even better for this weekend. His record at Martinsville include eight top-five finishes and 10 top-10's. I'm sure the Junior Nation is looking for him to break his 60+race losing streak.
Junior has not had a win in nearly two years but he may be looking at his best race finish coming up very soon. If he keeps the passion that seems to be fueling his racing these days, we could be looking at one of the more interesting stories in racing this year.
By the way, Handy Manny is a Disney cartoon in which Dale Jr. became the voice of Chase Davis, famous race car driver. Chase Davis played a famous racer who came in and helped his friends work together and win the race. Maybe Junior will be able to do the same in real life.
You can follow me at Twitter @nascarfaithful
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.
