Chase Elliott dethrones Dale Earnhardt Jr. as king of die-casts

Dale Earnhardt Jr. has been dethroned -- at least for the time being -- as king of the NASCAR die-cast cars market.

Earnhardt may have recently been voted the most popular driver in NASCAR for the 14th consecutive year -- but in a somewhat shocking development, he has been moved off the die-cast mountaintop by Chase Elliott, his much younger Hendrick Motorsports teammate and driver of the No. 24 Chevrolet.

Lionel Racing posted its top 10-selling die-cast cars from the 2016 NASCAR season on its website Thursday.

For the first time since 2011, one of Earnhardt's cars didn't top the list. His sales probably weren't helped by the fact that he missed the last half of the season while recovering from a concussion.

Earnhardt still came in strong, with his cars claiming the next three spots on the list and four of the remaining nine places in the top 10. Earnhardt wasn't even the driver of the No. 88 in the race that featured the one-off "Grey Ghost" throwback paint scheme at Darlington, which came in at No. 9 on the list. By then, Earnhardt was sidelined by the concussion and he was replaced for that race by Jeff Gordon.

But Elliott, a rookie in NASCAR's top series who replaced Gordon in the No. 24, had the top seller with his NAPA-sponsored primary paint scheme.

"This is pretty freakin' cool to see," Elliott said on Twitter when he was informed of the news.

Here is the complete list of the 2016 top sellers.

https://twitter.com/Lionel_Racing/status/809414825109585920

https://twitter.com/chaseelliott/status/809426494065901569