Win or lose, Earnhardt Jr. always makes it interesting

LAS VEGAS -- Even in the midst of a disheartening start to the season, the true believers continue to believe. In the long line of cars snaking toward Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Sunday, Dale Earnhardt Jr. was everywhere -- in 88s scrawled across rear windshields or pickup tailgates, in those familiar red and green colors on car flags or cap bills protruding from rolled-down windows, in the T-shirt worn by a guy standing up through the sunroof of a limousine, just like the Tom Hanks character in Big. The NASCAR driver was nowhere to be seen, of course, but he was everywhere at the same time.

Shelby 427

Results

Pos.	Driver	Make
1.	Kyle Busch	Toyota
2.	Clint Bowyer	Chevrolet
3.	Jeff Burton	Chevrolet
4.	David Reutimann	Toyota
5.	Bobby Labonte	Ford
6.	Jeff Gordon	Chevrolet
7.	Greg Biffle	Ford
8.	Brian Vickers	Toyota
9.	Jamie McMurray	Ford
10.	Dale Earnhardt Jr.	Chevrolet

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This was Junior Nation, marshaling as it does every week, through race victories and long winless streaks and crashes and pit-road mistakes and controversy. Their man was in trouble, and they knew it -- a spate of misfortune in the season-opening Daytona 500, combined with engine failure last week in Southern California, had relegated NASCAR's most popular driver to a precarious 35th in points as the Sprint Cup Series rolled into town. His support system was out in force, its members honking car horns and trading fist pumps as the quagmire of traffic inched its way ever closer to the big speedway splashed across the stark desert landscape.

That kind of fan following is just one of the things unique to Earnhardt, at once the most popular, polarizing and criticized figure in NASCAR. People love him. People hate him because so many people love him. People embrace him because of his last name and who his father was, while others are repelled for the same reasons. Some don't think he's done enough to justify all the attention he receives; to others, he's been hamstrung by change and circumstance. It's hard to believe that such a relatively quiet, often unassuming, occasionally taciturn 34-year-old can inspire such a disparate array of passions. But Earnhardt does, every time he slides behind the wheel.

It's all part of what makes him so fascinating. Anything Earnhardt does creates substantial ripples, like a large rock dropped into a pond. His triumphs and struggles are magnified by the brightness of the spotlight that's always focused on him, made larger than life because of the reactions they provoke. Any other driver misses his pit board in the Daytona 500, and it's a non-story; Junior does it, and it's a crisis. Any other driver crashes with Brian Vickers trying to get a lap back, and it's a controversy; Junior does it, and it provokes debates over the most overrated athlete in history. Likewise, just the sight of that No. 88 car taking the lead elicits a chorus of cheers that can be heard even above engine noise. Missing the Chase, ending a 76-race winless streak, changing teams -- his career is a roller coaster, and we're all along for the ride. (Continued)