Dale Jr.'s return guarantees eyeballs on 2017 NASCAR season

By Tom Jensen
Published

NASCAR, its tracks, television networks, souvenir vendors and everyone else who works in the sport got an early Christmas present Thursday with the news that Dale Earnhardt Jr. will be back piloting the No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, starting with the 2017 Daytona 500, Feb. 26 on FOX.

This is huge news.

Whether you’re an Earnhardt fan or not, there is no question that he moves the needle more than any other driver in the sport. When Earnhardt is on the track racing — and especially when he’s winning races — he puts butts in the seats and eyeballs on the televisions and phones like no other driver.

It’s not even close.

There’s a reason he’s won the National Motorsports Press Association Most Popular Driver award for 14 consecutive years. Earnhardt has a huge and loyal fan base, and when he missed the second half of the 2016 season, a lot of those fans lost interest, or at least scaled way back.

Combine Earnhardt’s absence last summer and fall with the retirement of Jeff Gordon, the impending retirement of Tony Stewart and the absence of much promotion by Sprint in its lame-duck season as NASCAR’s title sponsor and there simply wasn’t a whole lot of momentum to the 2016 season, at least not until the final couple of races when the Chase got crazy.

Now, NASCAR heads into 2017 on a much-needed high note. The sport’s most-popular driver will be strapped into the No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet for the 2017 Daytona 500 (and beyond), which means his massive fan base will be paying rapt attention.

And you know Monster Energy is going to pull out all the stops to attract a new generation of young fans, just like they’ve done so successfully in Supercross and other forms of motorsports they’ve been involved in.

After being out of the saddle for half the season, Earnhardt will have his work cut out for him when he returns, for sure. After all, the Daytona 500 is the biggest race of the season and, as we all know by now, an early season victory can lock a driver into the Chase and make his summer a whole lot less stressful.

Then again, kudos to Earnhardt for spending months working hard to prepare for his return. By all accounts, he put forth a tremendous effort to recover from a serious concussion. That’s laudable.

Regardless of how Earnhardt does upon his return, this much is unquestionable: Everyone is going to be paying attention at Daytona Speedweeks, and that’s a beautiful thing.