NASCAR: Five Things Fans Were 100 Percent Right About

NASCAR Is Overly Obsessed With Dale Jr. 

Does this really come as a surprise to anyone? While the obsession would be justified if Dale Earnhardt Jr. had actually turned out to be as talented and successful as his late father was in his heyday, it now just looks like a desperate attempt by the media to keep a driver with average talent relevant and constantly in the headlines.

The obsession is even more blatant on race day, where the broadcast booth devotes huge chunks of time of their race coverage to Jr.’s progress on the track. In fact, one could argue that Jr. is one of the only drivers on the Sprint Cup circuit that receives a huge amount of coverage on a  weekly basis regardless of where he qualified, how he’s performing and if he qualified for the Chase or not.

Take the spring race at Bristol for example, where the Fox Sports One booth constantly updated fans on Dale Jr.’s progress after he missed a shift on the opening lap of the race and went two laps down. Sure, it was a big deal at the beginning of the race, especially since Jr. had qualified near the front, but it became less and less relevant as the race went on.

While the obsession will Dale Earnhardt Jr. will probably never end, especially considering how big his fan base is, hopefully he will eventually be able to justify the obsession with some broken records and a championship. Until then, it’s not deserved and takes away from drivers that are actually accomplishing major feats on the track.

You could argue NASCAR did the same with Danica Patrick her first couple of years in the series but even that has died down in 2016.

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