NASCAR takes serious blow with Dale Earnhardt Jr. retirement
Corrections/clarifications: A previous version of this story listed the wrong number of career wins for Jeff Gordon. Gordon retired with 93 victories.
Tuesday’s news that Dale Earnhardt Jr. will retire from driving at the end of this season comes as a hammer blow for a sport that has seen its star power fade in recent years.
When Earnhardt races for what he says will be the final time this November, he’ll join a Hall of Fame-quality list of drivers and huge fan favorites who have permanently pitted in recent years.
Tony Stewart, an old-school driver whose fan base stretched across many motorsports disciplines, retired in 2016 with three championships.
Four-time titlist Jeff Gordon, third on the all-time Cup victory list with 93 and a multimedia star on and off the track, retired at the end of the 2015 season (although, ironically, he returned for several races in 2016 to substitute for the injured Earnhardt).
Carl Edwards decided to step away from the sport at the end of last season. Although Edwards avoided using the word retirement, there has been no serious public discussion concerning his possible return to the cockpit.
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If the loss of those big names wasn’t enough, the immediate future remains shaky for a sport already buffeted by declining attendance and sour television ratings. And now it is losing its 14-time most popular driver.
Jimmie Johnson, pursuing a record eighth championship and winner of the past two Cup races, is 41. Reliable contender and 2003 champion Matt Kenseth is 45. Kevin Harvick, the 2014 titlist pushed into stardom as Dale Earnhardt Sr.’s replacement following the seven-time champion’s death in the 2001 Daytona 500, is 41. Kurt Busch, another champion, is 38.
Danica Patrick delivered a new publicity vibe to NASCAR, but her failure to win or seriously challenge on a consistent basis has made her presence less of a factor, as evidenced by the Stewart-Haas Racing team’s difficulty in signing sponsors for her. There has been speculation that unless she starts winning, Patrick may be close to stepping away and moving full-time into the lifestyle brand she continues to cultivate.
There is no indication that Johnson, Kenseth, Harvick or Busch plan to exit NASCAR soon, but their inevitable departures will remove even more star power from pit road.
The sport retains names that can carry a spotlight, of course. Joey Logano, Brad Keselowski, Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin, Kyle Larson and Martin Truex Jr. are winners, but none shows the star power of Earnhardt, Stewart or Gordon. Or the crossover ability that Gordon had.
A list of promising young drivers would include Ryan Blaney, Chase Elliott, Erik Jones, Austin Dillon, Daniel Suarez and William Byron, but all seem years away from being able to carry the weight of superstardom. And that assumes they become proven winners and start showing some personality.
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“We’ve got some great young drivers coming up,” Fox Sports broadcaster Mike Joy told USA TODAY Sports on Tuesday. “But they need some time to make a name for themselves and get fans attached to them. I was hoping the horizon (on Earnhardt’s retirement) would be further out in part because of that.
“This comes right on the heels of Jeff’s retirement and Tony’s retirement. But I recall when the careers of Cale Yarborough and Bobby Allison and Richard Petty and David Pearson were winding down. We were all going, ‘Oh, gosh, who is going to step up to replace those guys?’
“Nobody could replace them, but other people started winning. Now we’re in a very similar situation. Fans will find their favorites, but we are losing a lot of stars from driving in a very short time.”
Rick Hendrick said he’s confident the sport will move through the changes with authority.
“I've never seen so much young talent,” he said Tuesday during Earnhardt’s retirement news conference. “I can remember when the question was all of our drivers are in their 40s or they're going to be -- what are we going to do when they retire? I think we've got the answer. They're here, they're young, they're aggressive, they're fun.”
Follow Hembree on Twitter @mikehembree
PHOTOS: BEHIND THE WHEEL WITH DALE EARNHARDT JR.
