Dale Earnhardt Jr. Declares NASCAR Desperately Needs “Some Rock Stars” to Achieve Next-Level Popularity

NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt Jr. has shared his thoughts on the need to have real superstar in the sport.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. Declares NASCAR Desperately Needs “Some Rock Stars” to Achieve Next-Level Popularity

Dale Earnhardt Jr. (via Imago)

🔍 Explore this post with:

ChatGPTPerplexityGrok AIGoogle AI

One of the major reasons behind NASCAR’s inability to attract more casual fans has been the lack of superstar racer. The big names in the current garage such as Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson doesn’t have influence beyond the passionate fans of the sport. The ones who have the potential to be huge stars unfortunately aren’t the best drivers of the championship.

Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt Jr., who was the superstar the sport needed in the early 2000’s, when the sports was at its peak, has shared his thoughts on the situation. In the latest interview with Jeff Gluck, the two times Xfinity Series champion was asked what needs to be done for the sport to achieve next-level fame.

In response the veteran made the same revelation he had made a tone of times over the years, the sport needs rock star drivers that can attract the crowd. The sports desperately need drivers that can attract the casual fans, as well as people with limited understanding sport, to grow the audience and market share of the sport.

We need some rock stars. It’s all about having some driver come in here and captivate the hell out of us and make people who aren’t watching go, “Who the hell is that?” That’s what it’s going to take.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. said via NY Times.

The major challenge, as discussed earlier, is the fact that at the moment the sport doesn’t have drivers capable of being superstars. There are many drivers with desirable personalities in the garage, but none of them have proved they are ready to become mainstream stars and as long as it happens, the sport will struggle.

We’ve got very cool people racing; there’s a lot of people in there who I like, cool guys who are fun to hang out with, but I don’t know how we get them to become mainstream stars.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. added.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. uses Tony Stewart helicopter example to explains how long he will keep racing

In the same conversation the 51-year driver was asked when he is planning to stop racing, as he is still making selected appearance in Xfinity Series, Late Model and CARS Tour. He responded by recalling the time he bought and used Tony Stewart’s helicopter and one day suddenly decided to sell it.

Tony Stewart
Tony Stewart (Via IMAGO)

I bought my helicopter from Tony Stewart, and I had that helicopter for a couple years. It was great. But I woke up one day, out of nowhere — nothing happened, I didn’t see anything, read anything — I just woke up one day and went, “I don’t want to get in a helicopter anymore.” And I sold it.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. said.

The veteran has the same feelings about racing as he pointed out that he will stop racing one day, when feels ready. At the moment he is slowly reducing the number of racers he is being part of in different series, slowly getting ready to shut everything off.

So (with racing) I think one day I’ll just wake up and go, “You know what? I think that was it. I think that was the last one.” I really feel it’ll be that way. It’s been like a faucet I’ve been slowly turning off as I went and ran those Xfinity Series races once a year, and now the Late Model races. I’m just kind of slowly turning that faucet off until I feel like I’m ready to shut it off entirely.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. added.

The comments from the Hall of Famer seems interesting and it seems he will surprise the fans with a sudden full-retirement announcement, though everyone knows it coming. It would be interesting to see how long Junior is going to continue racing.

Also Read: Denny Hamlin Is Hopeful Jim Pohlman Can Give Kyle Busch Desperately Needed “Performance Jump”