CUP: Still Most Popular, Still Winless

Sprint Cup

CUP: Still Most Popular, Still Winless

Dale Earnhardt Jr. is happy with his 2011 progress but longs for a return to victory lane…

Mike Hembree | Posted December 01, 2011 Las Vegas, NV

Dale Earnhardt Jr. will be among more than 50 NASCAR drivers signing autographs as part of the Sprint Cup Preview on Jan. 21 in Charlotte, N.C. (Photo: Getty Images)

Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s recent racing history doesn’t contain a lot of highlights, but it seems he can always count on a big one at the end of the season.

For the ninth consecutive year, Earnhardt Jr. picked up the National Motorsports Press Association Most Popular Driver Award at Thursday’s NMPA Myers Brothers luncheon at the Bellagio.

Fans vote on the award, and Earnhardt Jr. has had few challengers over the years, this despite the fact that he has gone winless over the past three seasons. This year he was the only driver in the top 14 in points without a victory.

“I don’t really know what to think about it,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “I don’t take it for granted. I don’t assume that I’m going to win it again. I know when Danica (Patrick) gets into the Cup series that she will be a candidate for the award right off the bat. She’s quite popular and will bring a new fan base to the sport. And what Tony (Stewart) has accomplished this year has to endear him to a lot of people who maybe weren’t Tony Stewart fans in the past.

“It’s a great honor. I’m hoping to continue to win the award. If not, I’ll be happy and proud for whoever does.”

The next task for Junior is to push his performance to another level and to return to the middle years of the decade when he finished third once and fifth two times in the point standings. This year, he was seventh, with four top fives and 12 top 10s and with a noticeable boost in performance over last season. Still, though, no wins.

Earnhardt Jr. said questions about his winless streak don’t bother him.

“It’s part of the deal,” he said. “We didn’t win. It’s an obvious stat. It’s hard to ignore. It bugs me because I know what winning feels like, and I want to have that feeling again. I want to enjoy something like that again in victory lane. It’s fun. It’s the reason you show up and keep going and think you might be able to do that again.”

Junior said his 2011 season restored some balance and happiness to his life.

“Deep within myself, I’m really happy about how I improved,” he said. “I’m happy to be competing again. I’m almost where I want to be. Outwardly, I want to express a lack of satisfaction. We need to get better. We have more to do. We need to go faster. Those are the truths. But I feel like I’m in a better place personally and professionally. I’m having fun. I enjoy driving.

“I got involved in racing because it made me happy. The last couple of years, I wasn’t getting any happiness out of it. I wasn’t sure how long I could go along in racing unhappy and keep doing it. But this year it turned around 180 degrees, and I’m enjoying it again, and I didn’t want to the season to come to an end.

“I’d like to run better. There are some truths as far as performance that we need to improve on. But I’m much more excited about my future.”

Junior said the highlight of the season for him was almost winning the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. He ran out of fuel on the last lap while leading.

“I think the lowest was Daytona (500),” he said. “We had a really fast car. And I wrecked in practice. It’s all about your first impression, and that was the first I had given my new crew. I was upset.

“I wanted to impress those guys and make them believe in me as a driver. I wasn’t doing a good job at the moment, and it was very disappointing at the time.”

Mike Hembree is NASCAR Editor for SPEED.com and has been covering motorsports for 29 years. He is a six-time winner of the National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year Award.

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Mike Hembree

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