iNSIDE SCOOP: Do You Believe?

Dale Earnhardt Jr. is the most popular driver in NASCAR every year. 

He’s got the biggest fan base, the most endorsements, the best equipment. Of course, he’s never won a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series title, and that is what ticks off a lot of Junior Nation.

But Sunday, he won for the third time this season, swept the races at Pocono and vaulted to the top seed in the Chase.

Could this be the year?

Well, yes, it could be. Might not be, either. Who knows at this point?

But, at least he’s in the title talk now, which is a big change from previous years. In fact, he’s not been a serious title contender since 2004, and that was derailed by a single poorly chosen word from Victory Lane at Atlanta. 

Uttering a no-no word on live TV cost him 25 points, and let Kurt Busch get away a little bit farther. He won the title, Junior didn’t, and then he went into a decade-long funk.

Of course, there was lots of stuff going on. The impending implosion of Dale Earnhardt Inc., an internal squabble with his stepmother, the exit to Hendrick Motorsports…all of that had a role in his disappearance from the title contender’s label.

Tony Eury Jr. went to HMS to be Junior’s crew chief. That fizzled. A couple more crew chiefs were tried and tabled. Finally, Steve Letarte came on board and the waves changed a bit to the good.

Now, it’s full-boogie tilt, and Junior has been not only competitive, he’s closing the deal when he gets the chance. That’s a big departure.

Just watching him in Victory Lane on Sunday was a revelation: he was genuine, thankful and very humble. And not shy at all. That’s huge. Junior as a man is very unassuming. There’s very little of the bad-ass that was part and parcel of his famous father.  That’s not say he’s not capable of speaking his mind; he is. This is more an attitude thing.

He’s comfortable in his own skin. He knows who he is and it’s not just Little E any more. He’s stepped into what he might have been much earlier had his father still been around. That’s killer.

That little fact could be the impetus that puts his name on the trophy this year. That and the fact that he believes he has the stuff to take it all the way home. He knows he has the equipment, he knows he has the right guy on the pit box and he knows he has it in him to take it the distance.

If he does end up winning it all—and that’s not a given, as you might expect—then look to Pocono 2 for the moment of the season when it all fell into place.