The award, voted for online by fans and administered by the National Motorsports Press Association, was presented to Earnhardt on Thursday at the Wynn Las Vegas.
“It humbles me deeply to know that you have so many fans in your corner each race weekend,” Earnhardt said in his speech. “There are a lot of motivating factors in life that drive our race team to be the best we can but none impact us more than the support of our race fans that they’ve shown over the years.”
Earnhardt, the son of seven-time Cup champion Dale Earnhardt Sr., went winless in 2013 but finished fifth in the standings.
It was speculated that Earnhardt might receive a challenge for the award this year from Danica Patrick, who won the Nationwide Series most popular driver award in 2012 and was a Cup rookie in 2013. But the Hendrick Motorsports driver had the most votes while Patrick was fifth.
The top 10, in order of the voting were: Earnhardt Jr., Kasey Kahne, Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart, Patrick, Jimmie Johnson, Kevin Harvick, Matt Kenseth, Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards. There were more than 1 million votes cast, and Earnhardt collected more than 700,000 votes.
STEWART WINS AWARD, VOWS COMEBACK
Tony Stewart was named the recipient of the 2013 Myers Brothers Award for contributions to the sport, and in accepting the award Thursday, vowed that he was ready for more contributions — on and off the track.
Stewart was honored for his role as owner of Eldora Speedway, the half-mile dirt track that played host to the first NASCAR national touring series race on dirt in 43 years when the Camping World Truck Series raced there in July.
“It was a lot of fun for us,” Stewart said about the truck race at Eldora. “I’m aging in dog years now. It takes a lot of time and effort. You probably won’t ever hear me give too many of the promoters in NASCAR a hard time anymore because I know what it’s like first-hand.”
The three-time Cup champion also is co-owner of two other short tracks — Macon (Ill.) Speedway and Paducah (Ky.) International Raceway — as well as co-owner of Stewart-Haas Racing.
Stewart was injured in a sprint-car crash in August and missed the final 15 races of the season. He is expected to be ready by 2014.
He used his acceptance speech to congratulate six-time Cup champion Jimmie Johnson, crew chief Chad Knaus and team owner Rick Hendrick.
“You backed into another one,” Stewart deadpanned. “I don’t know how you do it. It’s crazy how all these guys will lay down for you like that. You guys have done an awesome job.”
Stewart then warned his competition:
“It was hard sitting on the sidelines watching, but it gave me a different perspective that I haven’t seen in years of what we all do each week,” Stewart said. “It was a lot of fun to sit there on the side and watch you guys do what we do.
"But take this as your warning: I gave you guys (15) weeks off without me. I’ll be ready for Daytona and be back kicking your ass again, so you guys enjoy it.”
FRANCE WAS ANGRY OVER RICHMOND CONTROVERSY
NASCAR Chairman Brian France reiterated his anger over the Sept. 7 cheating scandal that marred the final regular season race at Richmond but believes NASCAR did all the right things in reacting to the controversy.
France, speaking Thursday in Las Vegas during Sprint Cup banquet week, defended NASCAR's actions of adding a 13th driver (Jeff Gordon) to the Chase for the Sprint Cup field and issuing penalties that kept Martin Truex Jr. out of the Chase and replaced him with Ryan Newman.
Truex’s sponsor NAPA eventually pulled out of the sport after the 2013 season, forcing MWR to cut back its No. 56 car to a limited schedule and Truex to move to Furniture Row Racing for 2014.
“I was pissed off,” France said. “I was very angry about it. But I’m a student of sports. … I knew that if we dealt with it really straight-on that we wouldn’t have a long-term (crisis).
“It was going to be really tough, especially for the teams that got penalized, losing sponsors — that was no fun for anybody. But I knew our credibility would be preserved if we did the right thing and reacted swiftly.”
NASCAR fined MWR $300,000 and also suspended MWR general manager Ty Norris.
“Every sport that’s large and competitive faces moments where your credibility and other things are tested,” France said. “The question is how do you respond. I think our team and our group did a very good job under the circumstances and obviously made some tough decisions.”
STENHOUSE WINS ROOKIE AWARD, PANS DANICA
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. accepted the 2013 Sprint Cup Rookie of the Year award Thursday and, of course, he had to acknowledge the driver who was his primary competition.
That driver also is Stenhouse’s girlfriend, Danica Patrick.
“Battles are tough, especially when you are going against your girlfriend,” Stenhouse said.
Stenhouse, a two-time Nationwide Series champion, finished 19th in the Cup standings in his rookie year for Roush Fenway Racing.
Patrick, who was 10th in the Nationwide standings last year in her first full NASCAR season, finished 27th in the Cup standings as a rookie at Stewart-Haas Racing.
The two drivers had two races where they were involved in wrecks with each other.
“We’ve had a few run-ins, which resulted in one really quiet ride home,” Stenhouse said. “And I learned real quick that if there’s a question it could be my fault, it’s better to go ahead and just apologize and get it over with.”
NASCAR TWEAKS HOF RULES
NASCAR has tweaked its Hall of Fame eligibility rules and selection process as it starts to put together its sixth induction class.
The main change is with driver eligibility. Previously, only drivers who had been retired for at least three years were eligible.
But with many star drivers still racing periodically, NASCAR added exceptions to allow any 55-year-old driver who had raced in NASCAR for 10 years to be eligible or any driver who had competed in NASCAR for 30 years to be eligible.
That has added several star drivers who will now be eligible for the 2015 class, including former Cup champions Terry Labonte and Bill Elliott as well as Mark Martin.
Contributors: Bob Pockrass, Sporting News staff
PHOTOS: Dale Earnhardt Jr. gallery
