Wins, losses can't measure Junior's impact on NASCAR

His 17 career Cup race wins are more than those recorded by Matt Kenseth and Kurt Busch, both former champions on NASCAR's premier circuit. Only eight active drivers have been to Victory Lane more often. But to quantify Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the simple terms of wins and losses is to overlook what he really means to his sport.

His value cannot be defined by statistics, quantified by raw numbers, or explained by results in a record book. He's never won a championship, coming close only once. He hasn't won a race in more than a year. Yet Earnhardt remains the most powerful and influential driver of his era, a figure in a red firesuit whose clout and reach extend well beyond his successes and shortcomings on the racetrack.

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Part of that has to do with marketing, even though the Earnhardt of today is much more mature than the kid with the blond-tipped hair who was once the embodiment of the rock, roll and racing lifestyle. Part of that has to do with his last name, although there are plenty of Junior fans today who never saw his daddy compete. Most of it has to do with an incredible coincidence of genetics and timing, which placed this often unassuming, sometimes scruffy 32-year-old at the one point in NASCAR history where he's needed most.

Sure, he gets a lot more attention that a lot of other drivers who have won more races or been celebrated as a champion. But Junior matters because he is the one figure in the entire sport who can successfully blur the line between old NASCAR and new. He's the one figure as universally beloved in the dusty infield at Darlington as in the champagne-and-brie suites at California. He's the one figure whose appeal cuts across all demographic barriers, the one driver able to attract teenagers to the sport while keeping old-timers hopeful at the same time.

"Nobody's ever had as many fans as he does, including his dad. Junior's still at the point in his career where nobody really boos him. People forget this, but people used to boo the hell out of his dad. You didn't sit on the fence. You were for him or against him. It was one or the other," said Jeff Burton, a favorite driver of the elder Earnhardt's. (Continued)