What's the play?

93Devil, you're way off. Darrell Waltrip and Bill Elliott were the popular drivers of Dale Earhardt's era. Dale Earnhardt Jr. dominates his era, in terms of popularity.

 

Earnhardt was popular and then went super nova due to his death. Earnhardt and Gordon are comparable. Huge fan bases but not quite the biggest.

 

While I agree Junior is a lot more than 10 percent as popular as his dad, Dale Sr.'s death has very little to do with his superstardom.

He and Richard Petty were two of the absolute all-timers.

 

Part of the old man's "popularity" was that many disliked him, too.

Sort of the Howard Cosell Syndrome. Scores near top in both "most liked" and "least liked" categories.

 

That's the way it was for Gordon, too. Richard Petty didn't have many detractors, and Jimmie Johnson became an all-time champion in a cloud of respectful indifference.

 

Maybe I am over valuing the raw passion of Earnhardt fans. Shit, they had fucking wakes where I live for the guy to give his fans closure, and the lines were ot the door.

 

OK, so this will be even more interesting, considering there's no major championship or finals game taking place.

What did you run and where on your Monday AM edition?

Euro2012? Olympic trials? Major League Baseball? Car racing? Golf? Wimbledon preview? Darts? Poker? A feature?

For me as a desk editor, the toughest part of the year was always early-July through mid-August. Football is too far away to generate much. No Major League team anywhere remotely close, so unless there's a no-hitter or some other milestone, it's just another day at the salt mine. Minor league team might be playing, but no chance of getting a photog to work a Sunday unless it's an emergency. NASCAR was a non-starter unless there was a major wreck with good art. At least this year the Olympics come at the perfect time from a newspaper standpoint.

Good time to get creative.

 

Dale Earnhardt won most popular driver once in his career, in 2001, the year he died but was still eligible because he raced once. For 15 of the 17 years prior and for the year after, Bill Elliott was the most popular driver in NASCAR. Only Darrell Waltrip knocked him off the top rung. In 2003, Dale Earnhardt Jr. beat out Elliott. This year will assuredly be his 10th in a row at the top.

Earnhardt's popularity was multiplied by his death. Imagine if Larry Bird, a spiritual cousin in fiery competitiveness and polarizing fans, had died on court in 1990. He'd be an icon of unbelievable, incomparable magnitude. But Magic Johnson still was more popular when they played. Earnhardt was an all-time great who always seemed like a cutthroat asshole. He polarized fans, but everyone respected him. When he died, they realized what a treasure he had been.

 

http://www.nascar.com/news/110209/dearnhardt-merchandise-sales-10/index.html

Does Waltrip stuff still sell or have his fans moved on?