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The on-track performances of Danica Patrick and Dale Earnhardt Jr. have not met the hype they have received.

Jelisa Castrodale

"Man, I wish this sandwich wasn’t called the No. 24," the guy in front of me grumbled, shoving his tray toward the register.

“Why’s that?” the cashier asked as he peeled a ball of sweaty dollar bills apart.

The customer paused, pointed at the faded Chevy logo on his t-shirt and said “’Cause of this.”

He turned toward the back of the line, flashing a "can you believe this guy?" expression to everyone still waiting to pay for their soggy stacks of cold cuts.

The cashier shook his head, confused.

"Cause Jeff Gordon drives the 24,” the man said, dropping two pennies in the tip jar. "Always hated him, always will."

That’s part of life here in North Carolina, on one of the major arteries extending out from NASCAR’s beating heart. This is where cardboard cutouts of Sprint Cup drivers line the aisles at the grocery store, where our DMV offers 26 NASCAR-themed license plates, where one single-A baseball team is named the Intimidators after ex-owner, the late Dale Earnhardt Sr.

This is NASCAR country, and we won't let you forget it.

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Even if you’ve never spent a Sunday watching men in fireproof suits make 1,600 consecutive left turns, you know Dale Earnhardt, whether it’s because of his Hall of Fame career, because he was the Patron Saint of Tradin' Paint, or because he earned every syllable of that “Intimidator” nickname after perfecting a stare icy enough to freeze the fur off the Klondike bear.

Chances are, you’re familiar with Dale Earnhardt, Jr. too, although it’s reaching the point where NASCAR’s 8-time most popular driver is better known for his billboards and TV commercials than for racing at Bristol and Charlotte. Last year, Junior pulled in $22 million in endorsement deals, snagging the  No. 16 spot on Sports Illustrated's Fortunate 50, a list that ranks America’s top earning athletes.

That top-20 finish at the bank was better than his 21st-place ranking in the 2010 standings.  Although Junior is currently fourth — with five top-10s in 11 starts — he has a 104-race winless streak dating to 2008. With two wins since 2006, they might want to rebrand him as Diet Earnhardt: all the opportunity, half the ability.

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So why does Junior still show up everywhere from stilted-sounding Nationwide ads to Jay-Z videos to the Suave coupon in last Sunday’s paper? For some reason, even though his wins have dried up, his popularity hasn’t. Just last weekend, he beat out four other drivers for the fan-selected spot in the Sprint All-Star Race at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

So is Junior popular because he’s shamelessly marketed or is he shamelessly marketed because he’s popular? As NASCAR spends a second straight week in Charlotte for the Coca Cola 600, it’s a question the men whose suits don’t have embroidered logos might want to consider.

GoDaddy, go Danica
The distance between overall popularity and on-the-track production is something IndyCar execs might think about while they nibble their own nails this weekend. All kinds of mixed emotions will be littering Indiana Motor Speedway during Sunday’s Indianapolis 500.

Primary sponsor GoDaddy would love to see their own Danica Patrick get her first 500 victory. And seeing a recognizable name chugging a glass of Winner’s Only milk could be a boost for a racing series that gets overlooked for the other 51 weeks of the year.

The problem with that scenario — at least for IndyCar — is that Patrick is rumored to swap IndyCar’s open wheels for steel tube frames and head to NASCAR full-time. Patrick has spent part of this season racing in NASCAR’s Nationwide Series; a win in Indianapolis might make her decide to climb out of her No. 7 car for good.

When Patrick races, whether she’s leading a lap (which she has yet to do this season) or getting lapped, she still brings a crowd. Some are interested in witnessing potential history.  Some are women who pull for the most famous XX chromosomes on the starting grid. And some just think she’s hotter than burning ethanol. So what happens to that percentage of IndyCar’s already dwindling audience if she’s not there? Will they move to NASCAR’s oval track with her?

“This isn’t going to be a welfare program to bring drivers who we think have a great presence who can help us,” IndyCar Series CEO Randy Bernard said. “So in the end, we’ve just got to put more value into the series, get better TV exposure and create bigger stars.”

Even with Patrick, IndyCar has always been the Cousin Oliver to NASCAR’s Greg Brady. How does an already-struggling series create stars, when their biggest one was — to quote either Lordy Byron or Lady Gaga — just born this way? Patrick already pulls in eight figures in endorsement and sponsorship deals.  She was auto racing’s only representative — and one of just 19 total athletes — on Forbes list of the most powerful people in entertainment. The IndyCar Series needs Danica Patrick about 12 million times more than Patrick needs it.

Although NASCAR has started to slowly recover from a massive dip in popularity, Tony Kanaan, Dan Wheldon and some of IndyCar’s other more popular drivers have found themselves on the sidelines without sponsors this season.

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“NASCAR has had a bit of resurgence,” said Gerry Philpott, whose company collaborated with Forbes on their list of Most Influential Athletes. "People are becoming more aware of the drivers.”

If that’s the case, this would be a great time for IndyCar to draft behind NASCAR and start introducing America to some other guys (and girls) with helmet hair and heavy right feet. Both of them need to start thinking about how to capitalize on any NFL-shaped holes in the fall television lineup. This is their chance to pull in some additional viewers, the kind who are just looking for a new sports-related excuse to leave a set of dents in their sofa cushions.

Both IndyCar and NASCAR have some interesting backstories and outsized personalities that they could be showcasing.  What about Scottish born, Tennessee breaded Dario Franchitti? Or NASCAR’s current points leader Carl Edwards, who some people couldn’t ID if he backflipped off their foreheads. And ongoing rivalries — like Kyle Busch and Kevin Harvick or . . . um, Helio Castroneves and Mel B . . wait, wrong show — practically sell themselves.

Just give us something else, someone else other than the underperforming Dale Junior and the undecided Danica Patrick. With two wins in their combined last 206 starts, we know how their stories are going to end. Give us someone else to cheer for, someone to extend our middle fingers toward, someone to ruin our otherwise innocuous sandwiches.

In other words, give us someone who can make us hear racing's thumping heart, regardless of where we live.