And Now for This Surprise: Dale Earnhardt Jr. Wins 5th-Straight Most Popular Driver Award

NASCAR fans don't care about wins, poles, or championships for their favorite drivers.

Performance on the track? Well, it's kind of important, but not nearly as important as having multiple television commercials, a pretty-darned famous last name, and a down-home attitude and look.

For those reasons, Dale Earnhardt Jr. just won his fifth-straight NMPA Chex Most Popular Driver award Thursday in New York City. Junior gave his obligatory remarks on winning his 5th-straight popularity contest that came as a surprise to -- well -- no one.

"When I became a Cup driver in 1999, I never would've imagined that we'd be talking about five consecutive Most Popular Driver awards. I have a special place at JR Motorsports where I put the MPD trophies, so I'm honored to add another one to the collection," said Junior.

"I don't want it to sound like a cliché, but this award really does mean a lot to me after all we have been through this year. This year has marked a significant transition in my life and career [...]"

You do kind of have to feel sorry for the folks at the NMPA because of the absolute domination that Junior holds on the contest. According to this article, of nearly 3.8 million votes cast online for each of the top 50 drivers in NASCAR, Dale Jr. managed to pull in 1.4 million of those -- nearly a third of the votes cast.

In other words? Dale Earnhardt Jr. is going to have to start building a new room onto JR Motorsports to house the trophies from the popularity contest he is bound to continue winning for a long time.

This victory, of course, comes during the year when Dale Jr. was the single-most talked about driver on the planet because of his departing of Dale Earnhardt Inc. for greener pastures at Hendrick Motorsports in 2008 -- a move that precipitated over several months.

The move, Earnhardt hopes, will take him from his zero-win 16th-place 2007 series finish to contending for wins and championships.