Popularity contest: Who will Dale Jr. support when he retires?

Well, NASCAR’s Most Popular Driver has a few suggestions. 

Earnhardt offered up his “Drivers to cheer for in 2018” list on this week’s Dirty Mo Radio Dale Jr. Download.  

“This isn’t to single anyone out — and I don’t want anyone to be butt-hurt they didn’t make the list,” Earnhardt said. “We just went through it quickly to put a few drivers on there.” Earnhardt said.

Here’s Earnhardt’s picks in alphabetical order — plus a few veterans:

Ryan Blaney — “If you’re a fan of social media, you follow racing through social media, Ryan Blaney is going to be your guy. He’s going to give you the most content. He’s going to run good and he’s going to be a guy that can give you a lot of social media. He’s going to go on the late shows. He’s going to be a guys that says, ‘yes’ to all those things. If you like seeing your driver here and there, doing things, and him being interactive social, he’s your guy.

Austin Dillon — “He drives the No. 3 car. Bit of a goof ball. Good, out-going attitude. Outdoorsman. Bit of a cowboy. He has a bit of a reputation that I think maybe appeals to some of the core NASCAR fans, some of the older NASCAR fans. Obviously, he drives for a really established, old team with a great reputation. So, RCR, No. 3. If you like the fact of a healthy Richard Childress Racing, he’s going to be part of that.”

Chase Elliott — “I like Chase Elliott. He’s got the last name. He’s got the talent. Very similar situation, carrying on a legacy. I think his popularity is already pretty big. I think it’s going to continue to get bigger especially once he starts clicking off some wins. He’s with HMS (Hendrick Motorsports) and a great team.”

Erik Jones — “He’s Kyle Busch 2.0. He’s super fast. Raw speed. He’s got it. Great talent. He kind of shies away from really putting himself out there. There’s not been a lot of opportunity — or I haven’t seen a lot of his personality. I’ve had some interaction with him on Twitter but as far as hearing him in interviews or hearing him talk or discuss things on TV or radio, there’s not a lot of that out there that I have seen. He is going to be part of the broadcast of the Pocono race for the Xfinity race. He is going to be part of the live broadcast, so we’ll all get to see a little bit of his personalty which will be interesting. I think he probably has a great personality. He’s got this mullet. He knows how to pick on himself. He doesn’t take himself too seriously. I think he has a great personality. I would encourage him to show that more. When I’m around him at the race track, you do see a very, very focused, game-face kind of guy. But there is a side of him that is the complete opposite that he could definitely show the fans more to give them an opportunity to get to know him. But I think there are great things in his future.

Kyle Larson — He is dominating the (Cup) series — and Xfinity. The self-proclaimed last true racer. He is the modern day AJ Foyt, Tony Stewart. This is a talented list — and when you’re talking about these drivers, no one stands apart in talent. Kyle Larson is another incredibly skilled driver. Another guy with a great personality, really funny. Family man, Squeaky clean. Doesn’t get in trouble. Races hard. There’s a little bit of chatter in the media about whether he’s aggressive enough. He finishes second a lot. Why isn't he winning more races? Trust me, Kyle Larson has no problem putting the chrome horn to you. That guy there would be one I would be personally inclined to consider to pull for.” 

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. — “Ricky Stenhouse, fun guy, good friend, great personality. He’s a hard racer. When he’s on the race track, he doesn’t race aggressive or silly or over his head, but he’ll race you hard. Now, he’s in a pretty good situation where his cars have good speed and he’s having his best year to date in the series. He’d be a good guy that I think is going to be around for a while and will continue to get better.”

Daniel Suarez — “So there’s one thing I like about Daniel Suarez being part of the series and being good and being talented. NASCAR has always been an American sport with American drivers. We’ve had a couple of guys come in — Juan Pablo (Montoya) — that are international talents but we haven’t really broken through that barrier and became a global sport much like F1 is. I think that is the logical progression for NASCAR. At some point, you want it to be a sport that races in Mexico, Canada, even overseas. We tried to crack that mold, break through that barrier when we were going to Japan and racing. That was the whole purpose of going over there, was to try and create some interest globally, outside of the United States. That was a huge undertaking for the teams and the sport to go over there and that was the reason for those efforts. So having drivers in the sport that were born outside of America increases our ability as a sport to be more appealing globally. Daniel is a great guy. I’ve had a lot of interaction with him, trying to get to know him. He’s super nice, man, really cool. He’s a guy I personally pull for. 

Jimmie Johnson — “Jimmie Johnson is on this list. So far, we’ve been talking about young guys but maybe you don’t want a young guy. Maybe, you want a veteran. Maybe, you want to go from veteran to veteran. You want a guy that is established and it’s obvious that these guys are established with great track records. So, Jimmie Johnson, a veteran. Obviously, you’re going to get a guy that’s winning races now — and championships. If you’ve become an admirer of what he’s accomplished — tying Cale Yarborough in wins, seven-time championship, tying my dad and Richard Petty. He's all-American, great personality. Family man. Not afraid of getting his hands dirty. Just an all-around cool guy. So, he’s an obvious choice for the good guy.” 

Kyle Busch — “Then you’ve got Kyle Busch. He wears the black hat. He wins a lot of races, creates controversy here and there, not liked by everyone but he does have a rabid core fan base. He does drive the candy car. A lot of young fans like Kyle Busch because he does drive a candy car. And I do like M&Ms myself. Kyle is going to keep it interesting. You’re going to be entertained. He ain’t changing. You’ve got to have good personalities. So you have Jimmie on one end of the spectrum and Kyle on the other end. Those guys are obvious choices if you want to go with winners winning now. 

Martin Truex Jr. — “So, Martin Truex Jr. is a neat choice because it’s unorthodox.They are a team up in Denver, Colorado. For the longest time in the sport, if you weren’t in Charlotte, you were an outsider. It was almost impressive that RCR was as good as they were being way up in Welcome, North Carolina. If you were outside of this little industry bubble in North Carolina, people didn’t take you seriously at all because you couldn’t get any of the good help. Nobody wanted to move outside of this industry. They felt if they moved outside this industry, they would lose connection, opportunity and continue to grow and get promoted. So nobody ever took that Furniture Row team seriously. Now, they’re one of the best teams in the sport doing it all the way out there in Colorado. It’s impressive. And now they’re a two-car team with Erik Jones. Martin Truex Jr. is an outdoorsman, an avid hunter. A lot of race fans connect with that. Incredible charity work outside of the race car. He is a Junior. Came from a family of racers. Great story there.

The Dark Horse: Chris Buescher — “If you want to start with a guy who’s not really established just yet — we named a lot of guys who are in pretty good positions with  teams — if you want to pick a guy who I think is just as talented as these guys and you kind of want to work your way up with him, Chris Buescher. I think that Chris did an amazing job in the Xfinity Series. He outran our (JR Motorsports) cars in the Roush stuff. Nothing against Roush, but I thought he did an amazing job. I think he does a really good job now in the car he’s in now. It’s a brand new team. It’s not one of the higher funded operations and I think he gets quite a bit out of that race car. I’m trying to set you up with a guy that’s going to make it, and you can go along with him for the ride.

Earnhardt was politically correct in adding that fans also pull for his replacement in the No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevy, “Whoever that guy is…you can take any of these 10 drivers or whoever is behind door No. 3.”