Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s fanbase was ranked in the 2018 Fandom 250, but NASCAR’s fanbase as a whole was left on the outside looking in.
Last year, NASCAR‘s fanbase ended up near the top of FanSided‘s annual Fandom 250, as it ranked #24 on the overall list and was the highest ranked fanbase of the eight fanbases in the “Other” category that made it into the rankings.
The fanbase of Dale Earnhardt Jr., who retired at the end of the 2017 season as the 15-time reigning winner of the NASCAR Cup Series Most Popular Driver Award, ranked #203 on the overall list of last year’s Fandom 250, and it was ranked #17 of the 18 fanbases of sports figures that made into the rankings.
This year, Earnhardt Jr.’s fanbase made it back into the Fandom 250 despite the fact that he only competed in one race, an Xfinity Series race, this past season.
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The 44-year-old Kannapolis, North Carolina native drove in the September race at Richmond Raceway, and he drove the #88 Chevrolet for the team that he co-owns, JR Motorsports. He finished the race in fourth place after starting in second and leading a race-high 96 of its 250 laps.
Earnhardt Jr.’s fanbase ended up losing 22 spots and being ranked #225 on the overall list of this year’s Fandom 250, and it was ranked #19 of the 20 fanbases of sports figures the made it into the rankings.
While Earnhardt Jr. retired after the end of the 2017 season, the fact that his fanbase was still included in this year’s Fandom 250 makes sense. For how many athletes can you seriously ask the question: “Will (league name) survive without (athlete name)?” Earnhardt Jr. is certainly one of them.
This leads me to my next point, as the answer of those who compiled the Fandom 250 seems to be “no” when it comes to Earnhardt Jr. and NASCAR’s survival.
In this year’s Fandom 250, NASCAR’s fanbase was nowhere to be found, as it plummeted from being ranked #24 last year to not even being included in the rankings. While the sport has been declining for several years, even before Earnhardt Jr. retired, this past season was one of the worst seasons if not the worst season in recent history by several metrics, including the two big ones: attendance and TV ratings.
This was the case despite the fact that the quality of racing was, for the most part, fantastic, which certainly does not bode well for the sport’s future no matter how you slice. NASCAR can still definitely survive without Earnhardt Jr., but its popularity will continue to decrease to at least some extent unless major changes are made.
While the fanbase had been declining for several years prior to Earnhardt Jr.’s retirement, the fact that it dropped from #24 to completely out of the Fandom 250 in a matter of only one year makes sense, as it illustrates that no matter how great the on-track product is, fans still aren’t nearly as interested in it as they once were by any stretch of the imagination.
Do you agree with the rank of Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s fanbase in this year’s Fandom 250? Do you agree with the NASCAR fanbase as a whole being completely left out of the rankings? There are certainly many questions to be answered by NASCAR regarding the popularity of the sport as it continues to decline year after year. Will the sport ever get back to being what it once was?