NASCAR: Like it or not, the sport will go where Chase Elliott takes it

In the post-Dale Earnhardt Jr. era of the NASCAR Cup Series, the sport will go where the new most popular driver, Chase Elliott, takes it.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. retired from his role as a full-time NASCAR Cup Series driver following the conclusion of the 2017 season. After the season ended, he was awarded the Most Popular Driver Award one final time.

Over the course of his 18-year career as a full-time Cup Series driver, the 44-year-old Kannapolis, North Carolina native won this award 15 times.

In fact, when he won it for the 15th and final time after he retired, a driver not named Earnhardt Jr. had not won it since Bill Elliott won it for his final time, an all-time record 16th time, following the conclusion of the 2002 season.

But with Earnhardt Jr., whose Cup Series career was undoubtedly hyped up by the fact that his father, Dale Earnhardt, won 76 races and tied the all-time record of seven championships over the course of his career, having retired, the sport was in need of a new most popular driver.

NASCAR is on the decline. There is no point in denying that. Look at attendance. Look at television ratings. Look at the moaning and groaning on literally every Facebook or Twitter post that has anything to do with the sport.

This led Stewart-Haas Racing’s Kevin Harvick to publicly state that he believed Earnhardt Jr. stunted NASCAR’s growth. He made these remarks in August of 2017, which was just a few months after Earnhardt Jr. revealed that the 2017 season would be his final season before his retirement.

Here is what Harvick had to say about this matter.

"“(Earnhardt) hasn’t been anywhere close to being our most successful driver. When you look at other sports – you look at basketball and you look at football and you look at their most popular (athletes), they’re also right on the top of the list as their most successful (athletes).“So for me I believe that Dale Jr. has had a big part in stunting the growth of NASCAR because he’s got these legions of fans and this huge outreach of being able to reach these places that none of us have the possibility to reach. But he’s won nine races in 10 years at Hendrick Motorsports and hasn’t been able to reach outside of that. So I know that those aren’t the most popular comments, but those are real life facts that you look up and see on the stat sheet.”"

With all things considered, Harvick is 100% correct.

The fact that NASCAR’s most popular driver for a decade and a half was a driver who never won a championship throughout his 18-year career, which took place during a span when 10 different drivers won at least one championship, and won just nine races in 10 seasons driving for Hendrick Motorsports, arguably the top team in the Cup Series over the course of the last two-plus decades, certainly did nothing to help the sport as a whole.

That said, Earnhardt Jr.’s fanbase was undoubtedly still the biggest driver fanbase among the fanbases of the drivers with whom he competed throughout the majority of his career. You don’t become a 15-time Most Popular Driver Award winner without that being the case.

So what does this say about the future?