The real RACE for President

The recent Pennsylvania primary (thank God it has moved on to pester other states) got me thinking about who would be the President of NASCAR? No I’m not talking about Brian France or Mike Helton, but which driver ranks highest in popularity and performance? Let’s analyze the Top-5 this season.

The obvious choice for the most popular driver is Dale Earnhardt Jr., but his move to Hendrick has not yet produced a victory. Little E hasn’t won a Cup race in nearly two years, although he is 3rd in points. Seems like he missed his best shot at winning in 2004, kinda like the Democrats.

Then there’s Kyle Busch, who has one win and a series-leading four Top-5 finishes. He is in 2nd place in the standings, but there’s this little problem he seems to have: Personality. His big mouth has got him in trouble more than a couple times and burned bridges with Hendrick last year. Poor soundbites can kill a campaign, as we saw recently.

Jimmie Johnson undoubtedly would have won the popular vote and electoral had this election been held in 2006 or 2007. This season he’s moving his way up the polls with his victory last week in Phoenix, so he could be considered a strong VP candidate.

Kevin Harvick also is having a good start to the season. Unfortunately, he hasn’t won a Cup points race since that stunning victory in last year’s Daytona 500. We’ll give him the Ron Paul tag and thank him for running. Better luck next time.

And then there’s Jeff Burton. His resurgence with Richard Childress in recent years has him at the top of the points going into Talladega this week. To go with that performance, he might be the classiest driver in the garage. He also has been a leader in safety this decade and slammed NASCAR when it hasn’t done its job in that department.

So I’ll leave it to you to decide who is at the top of NASCAR’s mountain. And maybe we’ll be fortunate enough to have one of them run for President this November to end this primary chicanery.