With NASCAR driver Tony Stewart retiring at the end of the year and Jeff Gordon mostly retired, Dale Earnhardt Jr. being sidelined for the rest of the season exposes the sport's "glaring need for new stars to captivate the audience," according to Jenna Fryer of the AP. Those three big names "who have moved the needle for NASCAR the past two decades have a combined seven championships, 168 career Cup wins and five Daytona 500 victories." More important, they are "household names for NASCAR, the ones who move the needle and make people pay attention." NASCAR will argue the sport is "bigger than one, two or three personalities, and that the stable is full of young talent to carry stock car racing deep into the future." There is "some truth to that and it stretches beyond" drivers Kyle Busch, Joey Logano, Chase Elliott, Austin Dillon, Ryan Blaney and Kyle Larson. The problem is that "none of these new faces are the complete package." Fryer: "They seem fun on Snapchat and other forms of social media, but put them in a firesuit with a live television camera and all the sparkle is sucked right out of their personalities." There are "plenty of drivers with the talent of Erik Jones, William Byron or Daniel Suarez, but if they can't make a fan base fall in love with them, then what does it matter?" NASCAR's new superstars need to be "engaging, entertaining and excited to be part of the show." The message needs to be "conveyed to these young drivers before the fan base leaves with Gordon, Stewart and all the other stars from that romantic time when NASCAR was fun" (AP, 9/5).
WAITING GAME: ESPN.com's Bob Pockrass noted attendance and ratings "don't seem to have been affected yet" by Earnhardt's absence, but now that fans "know he won't be at the track, there certainly is at least mild concern throughout the sport." A Talladega Superspeedway spokesperson said that Earnhardt's announcement has not had "an impact" on ticket sales for the Oct. 23 Sprint Cup Series race there (ESPN.com, 9/2).
DAY-TO-DAY: Earnhardt on Sunday said that his health "continues to improve and he still expects to return" to NASCAR racing in '17. Earnhardt: "I definitely don't belong in a race car today, by any stretch of the imagination." He added, "I'm going to be back to normal in the near future." Earnhardt: "You don't know how long this process is going to take and we want to be healthy and able to compete at some point. But also we don't want to take any risks and re-injure ourselves." Univ. of Pittsburgh Medical Center Concussion Program Clinical & Exec Dir Dr. Micky Collins, who has been treating Earnhardt, said that as long as he "heals completely, it will be safe for him to race again." Meanwhile, team Owner Rick Hendrick said that Earnhardt's future with the organization "is secure" (CHARLOTTE OBSERVER, 9/5). ESPN.com's Pockrass noted Earnhardt has "battled balance and vision issues associated with gaze stability." He is going through "vision, stability and exercise therapy" (ESPN.com, 9/4).
