Earnhardt already a favorite after debut race in TV booth

DAYTONA BEACH, FLA. » Dale Earnhardt Jr. leaned toward the track in the broadcast booth and hollered like a NASCAR fan at home over a gripping final lap in his debut race.

Once Kyle Larson tried to swipe the lead from Kyle Busch with a daring pass at Chicagoland, Earnhardt could not harness his enthusiasm. “Slide job!” “SLIDE JOB!”

Earnhardt smiled and clapped his hands at the move and — in a flash — the retired NASCAR star had a signature call.

“I was really surprised that that took off like it did,” Earnhardt said Friday at Daytona International Speedway. “I got done with the race, went to the car, drove to the airport. By the time I got to the airport, everybody was texting me, saying it over and over, and I’m hearing it everywhere all week.”

Sure enough, race fans on social media parodied the call and “slide job” was used as a voice over for other memorable moments in sports. At Daytona, fans cried out “slide job” and they clamored on Twitter for a business to produce T-shirts with Earnhardt’s image and the quote.

Earnhardt could only laugh at the hoopla his excited cries created in a sport desperate for any kind of feelgood buzz. It was exactly what NBC Sports counted on when it hired the outspoken and folksy Earnhardt, a twotime Daytona 500 champion, to work the booth this year.

Take a walk around Daytona and it’s clear the biggest star in the sagging sport is still Earnhardt — who retired at the end of last season on the heels of his 15th straight most popular driver award.

The Daytona fan zone has

a billboard-sized ad promoting itself as “The World Center of Racing” on the same wall as a close-up image of Earnhardt wearing a headset with the caption, “Same Dale. New View.”

Earnhardt’s presence looms large in a sport that has failed to create any new stars anywhere nearly as

popular as the driver who inspired “Junior Nation.” He hosted a Q&A with drivers such as Austin Dillon and Denny Hamlin in the fan zone before Friday night’s qualifying runs.

“He’s like the John Madden of racing,” NBC analyst and former crew chief, Steve Letarte, said.

JOHN RAOUX — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Alex Labbe (36) goes high to avoid colliding with Brandon Jones (19), who spins coming out of Turn 4 during the Xfinity Series race Friday in Daytona Beach, Fla. Kyle Larson won the race when it was ruled 19-year-old Justin Haley went below the yellow...