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Since the retirement of Dale Jr., NASCAR has had an unsolved issue. Who is their superstar? When you think about baseball you think of Aaron Judge, football and Travis Kelce, Basketball and Lebron James, but who is it for NASCAR?
All of those above have insane resumes that consist of domination year in and year out. Their cars and sponsors are iconic and replicated yearly. From STP and Richard Petty to the Intimidator, no. 3 Goodwrench. Or the Rainbow Warrior DuPont and The Budweiser no. 8.
We have seen glimpses of superstardom in the new generation of drivers, but why hasn’t a new NASCAR superstar emerged?
In the past NASCAR’s most popular driver aligns with the superstar of the sport. Some may argue the superstar of the generation era is Chase Elliott. Chase has won this vote consecutively since 2018, but why is he not considered the new superstar?
Chase isn’t consistently in the media other than race weekends. It’s rare that he does podcast or appearances outside of sponsorship events. His social media is rarely active. There is a bulk of opportunity left on the table when it comes to breaking out of the NASCAR Superstardom to a true cultural superstar.
Without activity outside the NASCAR industry, unless you’re in tune with the sport, you wouldn’t know the name Chase Elliott.
Most previous superstars of NASCAR have had a NASCAR villain to oppose them. Some may consider modern NASCAR villains to be Joey Logano, Kyle Busch, or Denny Hamlin. Currently, this hasn’t been the case. There has been no singular challenger against these drivers. This creates the inability to create a storyline with a villain and an underdog hero.
Compared to sporting events that are one team versus another, NASCAR consists of multiple teams against each other each weekend. The rivalries run throughout the field, but they may not be at the forefront leading to the event. Instead, it is an afterthought with little media coverage unless something escalates during the race weekend.
Social media is a blessing and a curse. Your personality and beliefs are fueled by what you put on the outlets from Facebook to Instagram to X. NASCAR stars are held to that standard at an even greater level.
Podcast by those within NASCAR have received scrutiny in the past, but not from the outlet we’d think. The sanctioning body itself has stepped in when they feel someone has “crossed the line” with comments on officiating, rules and other subjects of this nature.
As the world shifts to podcast listening, some driver have taken this route such as Denny Hamlin with his successful show ‘Actions Detrimental.’ On only his 3rd episode, Hamlin receive the hammer from NASCAR with a penalty for “wrecking” Ross Chastain at Phoenix in the spring of 2023.
Hamlin’s comments led NASCAR to believe that he intentionally wrecked Chastain as retaliation for incidents that happened throughout 2022. This “between the lines” reading from NASCAR had other drivers speaking out to the media about potentially going on-air for a podcast. One top driver, William Byron, openly stated that it would deter him from being a guest star due to something possibly being taken out of context by the sanctioning body.
This unfortunate reality has kept many stars from breaking outside the walls of the race weekend and keeping it hushed on social media.
There isn’t one single “fix-all” solution. It will have to begin with a driver who is wheeling the car and working the spotlight. A driver that isn’t afraid to get out into mainstream media and make a name for themselves outside of their NASCAR career. A driver that is willing to go against the superstars in other sports, head-to-head battling for the spotlight.
NASCAR is in dire need of a modern-day superstar in order to continue to draw fans to this sport. The popularity of NASCAR today versus its popularity in the Dale Sr. era is abysmal. Crowning a new superstar could propel NASCAR back into the mainstream media.
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