June 5, 2009
By Rebecca Gladden
If I hear one more person compare NASCAR's Dale Earnhardt Jr. to the IRL's Danica Patrick, I'm going to scream.
For one thing, it's completely overdone. It's trite. And uninspired.
Yet, everyone who repeats this mistaken notion does so with great enthusiasm, as if the comparison were not only true, but the most clever and original one ever drawn.
Describing Dale Earnhardt Jr. as 'NASCAR's Danica Patrick' is nothing more than a lame attempt by Junior haters to discredit the driver and his accomplishments.
Either that, or they're newcomers to the sport who've only watched Dale Jr. the past year or two and are unaware of his entire racing portfolio.
So, let's pretend for a moment that we aren't talking about Dale Earnhardt Jr. Take his fame and his fortune and his father out of the picture and focus on these facts:
'Driver A' spent four seasons in the Nationwide series before moving to Cup. During that time, he won 13 races and two consecutive series championships.
Overall, 'Driver A' accumulated 40 race wins in the Nationwide and Sprint Cup series from 1998 through 2008, including nine more NWS wins and 18 Cup wins. He won the Daytona 500 as well as four non-points-paying Cup races.
'Driver A' has led nearly 10,000 laps and scored 17 poles between the two series. In ten full-time Cup seasons, he finished the year with a top-ten points ranking four times.
As I'm sure you've deduced, 'Driver A' is Dale Earnhardt Jr.
And looking at it objectively, he's got a darn good record.
Earnhardt's critics hold it against him that he's popular and that he has a brashly vocal fan base that is often off-putting in its zealotry. He's been voted NASCAR's most popular driver for six straight years and is a constant focus of the sometimes frenzied motorsports media.
But Earnhardt himself doesn't seek the spotlight and is often embarrassed by the level of attention paid to him. After finishing outside the top 10 in Dover last weekend, he was astonished that reporters still sought him out for a post-race interview. "There was eleven other guys out there that deserve an interview better than I do," he chastised the media.
Meanwhile, Danica Patrick, eight years Earnhardt's junior, has spent five years in the Indy Car Series and has 69 races under her belt. She's won one race and has three poles.
'Nuf said.
Would it be fair to say that Dale Earnhardt Jr. is the greatest driver ever to race in NASCAR?
Of course not.
But it's also unfair to say that Earnhardt is a talentless hack who only has a Cup ride because of his racing lineage.
And it's statically invalid to compare him to Danica Patrick.
At age 34, Earnhardt Jr. has many years of racing ahead of him in the Cup series if he wants them, and time will judge his overall driving skill and success.
But, even if he never wins another race, he already has a respectable racing record.
If you are still compelled to try and knock Earnhardt Jr. down a few pegs, however, at least try to come up with something original.
The Danica diss has been done to death.
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