Dale Earnhardt Jr. hasn’t been a full-time active NASCAR driver in seven years but a paint scheme he hadn’t driven in 17 years saw him lead the way in one important merchandising category in 2024.
The paint scheme he ran last month in the South Carolina 400 at Florence Motor Speedway, a design that paid homage to the Budweiser partnership he raced under for almost a decade at Dale Earnhardt Inc., was the top selling diecast of the season according to Lionel Collectables.
The list was bookended by the 2024 championship winning No. 22 that Joey Logano took to his third crown in November at Phoenix Raceway at No. 10 in the 2024 edition of a list the official collectables manufacturer of NASCAR puts out at the end of each season.
Chase and Kyle Larson are the two most popular drivers in the sport and had two cars apiece appear in the 2024 rundown. Elliott took second in the Hooters car he took to Victory Lane at Texas in his only win of the season but also at No. 9 with the standard Hooters paint scheme, which is possibly the final time the longstanding Cup team sponsor will appear on the car after its bankruptcy filing.
As for Earnhardt, this is actually the second year in a row that he has taken a Late Model Stock design to the top-10 list but this time it comes using a custom made mold for all short track drivers to use, one that Earnhardt single handedly made profitable with one design.
The complete list can be found below.