Oversaturated? No. Over covered? Yes

To understand the myth of Dale Jr. oversaturation one will have to understand smart business practices. Do you ever wonder why ESPN rarely shows the Seattle Mariners, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, or even the White Sox on a regular basis? However, it seems as though weekly they televise a Red Sox or Yankees game. The reason behind this is pretty standard. The Yankees have the largest fan base in all of baseball followed by the Boston Red Sox. This is very significant to tv ratings across the country. Everyone is expected to draw viewers in their market, but these 2 teams span ALL markets. For example, in Kentucky there is a heavy saturation of Cincinnati Reds fans. Even so, there are healthy amounts of Yankee and Red Sox fans (amazingly no Kansas City Royals fans).

My point? Regardless of what you think about his driving ability, Dale Jr. has by FAR the largest number of fans in NASCAR. It's not debatable, it's fact. I'll also admit that a lot of these fans don't delve deep into the sport and just care about "their guy". So news outlets know that in order to draw interest to their print, tv, radio, and internet option that they need to cover Jr heavily to improve their user base.

Right now some people are wrongly holding this coverage against Jr. In the past several months Jr has done very minimal appearances and interviews. I know it doesn't seem that way, but set back and think about it. How much have you heard from the driver of the #88 and compare it to the amount of ridiculously shallow topical coverage from the media. When there is news I, as a fan, need to hear it. The thing is, there's been no news. Once Jr. said he was leaving, that was about all you heard from him. However, every radio show and media person went on and on and on and on and on about where he would sign. Then he signed and we heard from Jr. Then it was media coverage going on and on and on and on about numbers...then sponsors...then wait, that's it. Dale Earnhardt Jr. "news" dried up. He's had no real "announcements". He's had no major developments. That's the biggest problem I think he's had. Stopping creating news hasn't stopped Sirius, XM, Rowdy, nascar.com, Nascar Scene, Speed Channel, ESPN, etc from needing to attempt to bring in that massive Jr. fan base. So we've had 3 good months of the same old information hashed and rehashed continually. I know I'm sick of it myself, I could just imagine how someone who's not a Jr. fan would feel. Really...how many times do we need to discuss the following?

• "How's he going to fit in?"
• "What's he learned from Jeff and Jimmie?"
• "What's Jeff and Jimmie learned from him?"
• "What's the difference between DEI and HMS?"

Here it is in short...He's going to fit in fine. If there is going to be "ego" problems, it's something we won't see until MUCH later in the season. The season hasn't started and until a few test days last week the amount of time anyone has had to "learn" anything has been far too short. As for the difference between DEI and HMS? 6 Championships.

Let's move on.

In my mind Junior is far from oversaturated. He's got a massive legion of fans dying to hear from him and dying for new information. Has the coverage of Jr. been a bit much? Yes. However, that's on the people covering the #88. There is only so many ways that the same small news bits can be covered and stretched into 3 months of waiting for the season. I think we've all had our fill of it and tomorrow that all stops.

Finally, I’m getting excited

So far this off season I’ve been somewhat detached from NASCAR. Sure, I check rowdy and several other places to keep up on the happenings. I spend my evenings calling and making funny comments to my stepfather about his Japanese alliances (He’s a Tony fan.). I catch some pre-season thunder on Speed and while I’ve been excited about Jr’s move to Hendrick, it’s not really set in yet.

Until now.

Just because of pure pride I was ecstatic to see the #88 on top of the speed charts in Daytona. However, even as big of a fan as I am I wasn’t ready to hand over the title just yet. It’s Daytona. Steve Hmiel once said Jr could take a John Deer tractor to a top 10 finish at a plate track and that’s probably pretty accurate. While I’m still not ready to engrave Dale Earnhardt Jr on the inaugural Sprint Cup Trophy I have elevated my expectations tremendously.

The fact is that Jr is garbage at Vegas, at least how it was traditionally configured that is. Even the new configuration has given him some issues. The progressive banking is similar to Homestead where his finishes have left something to be desired as well. That looks as though it is starting to change after setting 8th on the speed chart in both the a.m. and p.m. test sessions yesterday. In my mind it has shown me that the extra resources are already making a difference. Most importantly, you can see a bounce in Lil’ E’s step. When he speaks there seem to be tons of passion, emotion, and hope in his voice. Something is different and I think more than anything it is that a huge weight has been lifted from his shoulders.

He’ll always have the weight of his father’s legacy on him. Similarly he’ll also carry the weight of being the poster boy for the sport, for being the most popular driver, and for being despised by some for the amount of coverage he receives. I think that’s enough to carry for any one person, but being at DEI he had so many more crosses to bare. He was the figurehead and with Thereasa keeping herself out of the spotlight as much as possible, he was the spokesman for the entire company. Now he’s a driver and regardless of what some think…the boy can wheel a car. Now he can apparently wheel it at Vegas. Now I’m excited.