Dale Earnhardt Jr. wins NASCAR's most popular driver award for seventh time
Dale Earnhardt Jr. has once more been voted NASCAR's most popular driver. // David Griffin, NASCAR Scene
LAS VEGAS - Dale Earnhardt Jr. has won the voting for the NASCAR NMPA Chex Most Popular Driver Award for the seventh time. He was given the award during the NASCAR NMPA Myers Brothers Award ceremony Thursday.
Earnhardt Jr., 35, has won the award for seven consecutive seasons. He remains third on the all-time list behind Bill Elliott (16) and Richard Petty (nine).
The award has been given since 1956 and is voted on by fans.
“It’s a lot of fun for me to get this award and [I’ve] been coming to, we used to fly to New York and we ain’t won a championship yet so we just show up for a day, but we used to fly to New York and now we flew out here today to pick this up and it’s a lot of fun,” Earnhardt Jr. said in his acceptance speech. “I take a lot of honor in it and a lot of pride. I know it’s kind of a cliche, but I just wanted to be a race-car driver, wanted to be able to make a living showing up, driving cars every week and having the fan support like I have has been an incredible bonus for me. I can’t thank them enough, so I guess I’ll just keep showing up.”
Earnhardt Jr. joined Hendrick Motorsports in 2008, making the field for the Chase For The Sprint Cup. He failed to make the Chase this season and endured a tough season in which he changed from crew chief Tony Eury Jr. to Lance McGrew and finished a career-worst 25th in the points standings.
Although he had won the award six consecutive times, Earnhardt Jr. said he was a little nervous this year because the voting was slightly changed from whoever got the most votes to where the top 10 vote getters prior to the Chase For The Sprint Cup were the 10 finalists and then only voting during the Chase counted for the award.
“It’s a big honor and I appreciate my fans’ support,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “We just keep going to the race track with the same attitude hoping we get to where we want to be and keep being ourselves and try to represent the sport – I try to do a good job and I think [I] have in representing the sport.”
Earnhardt Jr. came to Las Vegas just to accept the award. He once skipped the awards ceremony.
“I learned my lesson,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “If the fans are going to go through the trouble of clicking online every day to get this award for you and hope that you win it and want you to win it, I understand how important it is for me to accept it in person – not only to thank the fans obviously but it also gives me an opportunity to thank my family."
Earnhardt Jr. joked that he never thanked his family and didn’t say “anything of big substance” when he got on stage because he got nervous.
“It’s hard to put the words together to explain what the feeling is like,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “There’s a big sense of did I earn this, did I deserve it because of my family name. My [seven-time Cup champion] father gave me a hell of a gift in popularity. So my job has been to try to be an asset to the sport and maintain that gift and its integrity and the name that my father has built, the respect that it has, the Earnhardt name and all that.
“There’s a lot of emotions that run through when I accept the award. … There’s a big sense of responsibility for me with the Earnhardt name to do good, do it justice.”
