By Ray Glier

updated 6:51 p.m. ET April 30, 2009

TALLADEGA, Ala. - His legion of fans offers Dale Earnhardt Jr. comfort and pity and alibis. Their guy has three NASCAR victories since the middle of 2005, but they ride with him through blown engines, missteps and poor finishes.

Despite his second-place finish in the Aaron’s 499 at Talladega Superspeedway, Earnhardt cannot seem to finish among the leaders with any regularity. His other finishes this season have been 27th, 39th, 10th, 11th, 14th, 8th, 20th and 31st.

So is it tough to be a Dale Jr. fan these days? The answer, with few exceptions, comes back again and again: No.

“It gets annoying, the lack of wins,” said Tommy Blalock, 50, who is in the auto body business in Cumming, Ga. “But we still love him. If he never wins again, we would still love him.”

The fans are apparently not the only ones who feel that way. Earnhardt, 34, the son of the Nascar legend Dale Earnhardt, is racing’s brilliant pitchman, a Southern gentleman who sells for Army National Guard, Mountain Dew Amp energy drink, Sony, Adidas , Wrangler and others.

NASCAR, which is estimated to have $2 billion in annual retail sales, said Earnhardt was responsible for selling 25 percent of its licensed products. His share of sales is a larger cut than that for Jimmie Johnson, who has won three consecutive championships, and Jeff Gordon , who has won four championships.

Before Talladega, Earnhardt had an average career finish of 16th. Even a switch to the powerhouse Hendrick Motorsports stable in 2008 has not propelled him into the top tier of drivers. He is the third-best driver in the Hendrick garage behind Johnson and Gordon. Even the oldest Hendrick driver, Mark Martin, 50, has won this season.

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“We’ve had enough success in years past to give people that expectation of us doing more,” Earnhardt said recently. “We’ve struggled the last couple of years trying to do what we did the first several years. I don’t get as bent out of shape as everybody else because that’s life and there is no use griping about it; it doesn’t move you forward.”

Earnhardt is 15th in the points. But even that showing carried a tinge of tribulation.

Brad Keselowski, driving in just his fifth Cup race at Talladega and using an engine supplied by Earnhardt’s shop at Hendrick Motorsports, beat Earnhardt in a thrilling finish during which Carl Edwards’s car flew into a fence separating fans from cars going at least 190 miles an hour. Keselowski’s boss in the Nationwide Series is Earnhardt, a car owner.

In the postrace news conference, Earnhardt, instead of expressing bitterness after a close loss, praised Keselowski for his first Cup win.

“He’s got a lot of talent and a good future,” Earnhardt said. “He did an amazing job in a car that even the owner would admit probably isn’t the best thing out there. He deserves what he got today.”

That kind of humility has served Earnhardt well, according to David Carter, the executive director of the University of Southern California Sports Business Institute.

“It’s pretty easy to get your hands around why he has been so successful as a pitchman,” Carter said. “He appears very humble and very deferential and likable and that is important. These brands want to attach themselves to athletes that are stable and reflect positively on them. He is not just any 16th-place driver.”

For a time, it seemed Earnhardt was destined to win a title. He had a burst of success after his father died in a crash at the 2001 Daytona 500. His name and quick glory attracted his father’s fans and they, like the sponsors, will not abandon him easily.

“A lot of us he inherited from his dad,” said Ken Howard, 38, of Auburn, Ala. “If he was a jerk? We would still follow him anyway and his bad boy image if that was how he was.”

His fans ride along because most of them do not think Earnhardt’s lack of success is his fault.

“I think they need to get rid of Tony Eury Jr.,” said Tim Latham, 37, an electrician from Chelsea, Ala., referring to Earnhardt’s crew chief and cousin. “Sometimes you have to break away from family. A lot of us feel that way.”

But there are even a few Earnhardt supporters who do not think he is going to get any traction and become a star.

“He has the name, but the talent doesn’t match the name,” said Steve Chenault, a civil engineer from Myrtle Beach, S.C., who was wearing an Earnhardt Jr. hat as he walked the concourse at the track.

Still, Chenault admires Earnhardt’s grip on fans. He has been voted the most popular driver six consecutive seasons.

“His persona carries beyond results with us,” Chenault said.

Earnhardt, meanwhile, does not ignore the importance of results.

“You have to have patience, you’ve got to believe,” he said. “The money is good, but it can’t be the only thing that brings you here.”

This article, “Lacking Victories, Earnhardt Maintains a Devoted Following,” first appeared in The New York Times.

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