NASCAR drivers, including Chase Elliott, Aric Almirola, William Byron, Martin Truex Jr., and many others, appeared in a video to share their favorite drivers to support when they were growing up. While some chose their fathers as the drivers they looked up to, others picked Dale Earnhardt, Jeff Gordon, and many more.
Chase Elliott chose his father, Bill Elliott, the 1988 Winston Cup Series champion as his favorite driver. Truex Jr. followed the same path when he chose his former NASCAR driver father Martin Truex Sr. However, Almirola and Ty Dillon had interesting picks for their childhood NASCAR heroes.
Featuring on a video shared by "nascarpod" on Instagram, Almirola said:
"Growing up, my favorite driver was Dale Sr. The reason why was pretty simple. We sat on the couch and watched the races on Sunday," Almirola said. "Our whole family cheered for that black #3 car."
Ty Dillon, sharing his favorite, said,
"He was our guy. He was in our family race team, he represented everything that we were and we all rallied around him every weekend, whether it was good or it was bad. He was kind of our hope on the weekend of how our week was gonna go."
Interestingly, for Corey Lajoie, his favorite driver Dale Earnhardt Sr.'s son, Dale Earnhardt Jr. Amid all these, Brad Keselowski had the most surprising take when he picked Kyle Petty as his favorite.
Notably, Jimmie Johnson, Tony Stewart, and Jeff Gordon were some common names on the list of favorites. While William Byron picked Johnson and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. named Gordon as his favorite, Michael McDowell could not decide between Stewart and Gordon.
What makes Dale Earnhardt, Tony Stewart, Jeff Gordon, and Jimmie Johnson legendary in NASCAR
Dale Earnhardt was a seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion, having won the title in 1980, 1986,1987, 1990, 1991, 1993, and 1994. Nicknamed "The Intimidator", he had 76 race wins to his name in 676 Cup Series appearances in an impressive career spanning 27 years.
However, Tony Stewart, Jeff Gordon, and Jimmie Johnson were no less. With three, four, and seven NASCAR titles to their name respectively, the trio also boasts of a combined 225 Cup Series race wins in 2115 appearances.
All four drivers mentioned here are NASCAR Hall of Famers. While Dale Earnhardt Sr. passed away in 2001, Jimmie Johnson is still involved in racing. On the other hand, Tony Stewart and Jeff Gordon run the Stewart-Haas Racing and Hendrick Motorsports, respectively.