Since 2003, NASCAR’s Most Popular Driver Award has gone to either Dale Earnhardt Jr. or Chase Elliott. Coming into the sport with huge expectations because of Dale Earnhardt Sr. and Bill Elliott, both have stood their ground and carved out (in Elliott’s case, still carving out) a legacy of their own. But who is the better NASCAR driver? Recently, Kevin Harvick posed this question to Joe Gibbs Racing drivers and there was a clear winner.
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Appearing on Kevin Harvick’s “Happy Hour” podcast, all four drivers chose Chase Elliott over Dale Earhardt Jr. as the better NASCAR driver. While Denny Hamlin took some time to answer, Ty Gibbs and Martin Truex Jr. were clear that statistically, and because he has a Cup championship, Elliott was clear of Junior.
So is the #9 HMS driver a better driver than Dale Jr. statistically?
To date, Elliott has 19 race wins and has won the Cup Series title once, in 2020. Beginning his career at Hendrick Motorsports, he has two Daytona 500 poles but is still winless at the Great American race. Incidentally, he won the Xfinity Series title in 2014, driving the #9 car for Dale Jr.’s team, JR Motorsports.
Jr., who started his Cup career at Dale Earnhardt Inc. on the back of consecutive Xfinity (then-Busch) Series titles, has 26 wins and two Daytona 500 wins at the top level. Shifting to Hendrick Motorsports in 2008, Junior ended his career without winning a single Cup title, perhaps the only thing that is missing from his legacy.
It is hard to argue that Elliott is indeed ahead of Dale Jr. as a driver, and considering he still has at least a decade more to give to the sport, the gap will only widen.
What can Chase Elliott learn from Dale Earnhardt Jr.?
But statistics alone do not tell the whole story, especially if measuring overall contribution to NASCAR. Be it as a team owner or someone who is dedicated to the marketing and product side of the sport, Earnhardt Jr. is still the face of the promotion in most parts of the country.
This is perhaps the biggest criticism of Chase Elliott – despite being the most popular driver, his lack of efforts toward helping in the overall development of the sport from a marketing and promotion side. Over time though, maybe Elliott will take a leaf out of Earnhardt’s book and put more focus on the off-track aspects of NASCAR.
