Austin Dillon would be the natural move for Jr fan boys. Otherwise Elliot if you want to stick with Hendrick
Most fans won't just indiscriminately hitch their wagon to a new guy for nothing. Junior inherited all of his fans from his "Daddy" (it's weird that he still calls him that. Maybe it's a southern thing.) Winning races didn't hurt, either. With guys like Smoke, Edwards, Martin, Gordon, etc all retiring recently, I find it hard to call myself a fan of anyone in particular. Not having anyone to root for makes it harder to watch. Combine that with this horrible new format and the yearly series name change, and I find myself watching fewer and fewer races.
It won't happen overnight but I think most of his fans will still watch the sport and eventually have another favorite driver. He wasn't like Tiger where he brought non-golf fans to the sport. Most Jr fans were already NASCAR fans before him and will continue to be so after he's gone.
While not many will concsiensly turn away from the sport, there will be many that aren't as compelled to tune in to a race, go to a race, or buy apparel. Nascar isn't doing well at the moment and I think they would benefit if he remained a visible presence in some capacity.
Danica was just awful in her interview after the wreck last night. Dude just got choppered out of the track and she spent 5 minutes with the woe is me act crying about how unlucky she is. She then mentioned Almirola and went right back to talking about herself and how she won't always be so lucky to walk away. Almirola literally didn't want away yet all she can talk about is herself.
I was a davey Allison and rickey Rudd fan Since they retired or passed I have yet to really pick a favorite and my interest has dropped
Her interview was bitchmade. Aric has compression fracture on at least one vertebra. He hit them at about 155 mph and him lifting off the ground was probably a good thing in terms of dissipating some energy. Could have been a lot worse if he hit dead on into joeys driver compartment.
Watching the replay, Logano got really lucky that Danica hit his rear quarter and turned his car. If not, Almirola would have had direct impact into the side door where Logano was sitting. Instead he hit the front quarter.
Danica could have been better but think of how rattled she probably was from that crash. Her car was up in flames and she got wrecked out of nowhere. In that moment You have to be a pretty amazing person to be thinking of someone else.
It was over 30 minutes after the wreck. Almirola had already been choppered out. She had just been released from the medical center. Logano had no issue in making it all about Almirola when they interviewed him 10 minutes prior to Danica.
She got wrecked at 150+ and then barbecued, I got no issue with her being shook less than an hour later. I still think the racing has been great this year and the stages have really added a lot to the strategy. Headed to MIS in a few weeks and will be interested to see if it chops it up too bad live.
she wasn't even shook; she was all pity party for danica. Even took a swipe at nascar saying she didn't walk towards the track because shes been fined before.
A) fuck Danica B) I lost nearly all interest after Adam Petty died and then Kyle retired. (Hint, I was/am a Petty guy) I was just starting to follow Almirola a bit. Hope he bounces back.
Danica blows ass. Has everything she needs to be successful except talent. As far as junior fans looking for a new driver, look towards Ryan Blaney. Kid is talented.
Ugh went out and tried to watch the race when I got home but missed the ending bc if the race delay :(
I want to say it was dumb for Kyle not to stop but if he stopped everyone else would have stayed out. He was in a no win spot. As for the block with 10 to go, I would have had no issue is Blaney would have dumped Kyle. Blaney clearly had the faster car and blocking with 10 to go was pretty weak. There was no way he was holding him off for 10 laps.
In February 2001, his dad died in a wreck at Daytona. In the July race, Jr went from like 8th to 1st in one lap with passes on the outside of the draft with no help to win the race. Nobody has done that on a superspeedway track before or since. Now I'm not going to say there were alterations to the car that allowed him to do that, but it was that or his dad came down from heaven and gave him a push.