Earnhardt top earner

He may have had his struggles on the track, not winning a Sprint Cup Series race in 2009, but Dale Earnhardt Junior was still able to smile all the way to bank last year.

According to Sport’s Illustrated’s Fortunate 50, a list of the 50 highest paid American sports stars, NASCAR’s most popular driver banked $26,611,290 in 2009. That’s $4,611,290 from salary and winnings and $22,000,000 from endorsements.

Those earnings were just below the NFL’s Peyton Manning who was 10 with $27,000,000 and just above NBA player Dwayne Wade at $26,410,581.

Earnhardt Junior, who was voted the sports most popular driver for the sixth straight year last year was 11th on the list in 2008.

The only other NASCAR driver to make the list was Jeff Gordon, Earnhardt’s teammate at Hendrick Motorsports. Gordon fell form 14th in 2008 to 21st in 2009 with combined earnings of $20,944,140. Examiner.com