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Happy Hour: How do you pick a new favorite driver?

Nick Bromberg
·College football and motorsports writer

Throughout the week you can send us your best questions, jokes, rants and just plain miscellaneous thoughts to happyhourmailbag@yahoo.com or @NickBromberg. We'll post them here and have a good time.

NASCAR's always more fun with a favorite driver. If you don't have one, you're in the minority. And we legitimately want to know what you watch for if you don't.

Given the popularity of Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart, a lot of NASCAR fans are going to be looking for new favorite drivers in 2016 and 2017.

If you're a Gordon or Stewart fan, what do you do? Do you jump on the bandwagons of Chase Elliott and Clint Bowyer? Going first person singular for a moment, Stewart was the driver of my youth. So this question holds special significance. 

Quite honestly, Stewart was the only sports figure/team that actually fulfilled my expectations as a kid. The Royals were terrible all throughout my formative years, the alma mater's football program only emerged from the doldrums right before I went to college and the Chiefs last won a playoff game when I was in first grade.

Stewart's 2002 and 2005 titles were my chances to celebrate.

This isn't meant to be a hero-worship post. When you start to cover a sport you start to see through the orchestrated circus it can be. And the longer you're around the less and less you feel like the race fan you were growing up even if you still continue to love racing itself.

But Stewart's continued presence in the Cup Series was the link to my childhood. His retirement announcement Wednesday was yet another realization that I'm an adult. And while the monthly mortgage payments are an even more real reminder of my adulthood and responsibility that comes with it, Wednesday felt surreal. Wait, am I really old enough for this to be happening?

So I got to thinking. If I was in your shoes and in the market for a new favorite driver starting in 2017, what criteria should I use? I put it to Twitter. And y'all had some good responses. Let's get to them.

We're thinking this is a minority opinion. This was the only response of its kind.

Is 80 percent too harsh? Bowyer has had success in the Chase even if he hasn't been in top-tier teams. His best shot came and went with a penalty at New Hampshire when he was with Richard Childress Racing. And now his MWR career is ending with a Chase penalty. 

But should those penalties and what happened at Richmond in 2013 be a reflection of Bowyer? Or should they be more a reflection of the teams? It's not like Bowyer acted independently from his team's desires when he spun at Richmond. Or he told his team to have a car that would fail inspection.

If penalties were such a telling thing when it comes to a driver's character, why is Jimmie Johnson so popular? With Bowyer now in Hendrick equipment, he has a chance to be one of the faces of NASCAR in the near-term. And that's not a bad thing. His public persona lines up with what a lot of NASCAR fans say they want from a driver.

Larson is going to be the trendy pick to make the Chase until he finally does. We say finally in jest. He'll probably be in it in 2016. Though a lot of people thought Larson would be in the Chase (and victory lane) in 2015. It's easy to see a NASCAR dominated by Larson and Chase Elliott in 2025.

Here's another good question. If you have a second favorite driver, do you go with him even if he's on a rival team? 

Elliott has a real chance to take the mantle from Dale Earnhardt Jr. as NASCAR's most popular driver. He'll likely inherit a lot of Gordon fans and also Junior fans when Junior retires given Junior's affinity for Elliott.

Brian also brings up a good point. If you're switching drivers, are you doing it for the near-term or do you do it with an eye on the long-term? There's no problem in switching again in a few years if your new favorite retires, but you can't go hopping on the Elliott bandwagon a year after you're on the Bowyer bandwagon and he finishes 12th in points or something. 

Stewart's continued presence at SHR could keep a lot of fans there too. If not Bowyer, then Harvick. While Kurt Busch and Danica Patrick could be options, Bowyer and Harvick seem like the clear cut choices of new-favorite SHR driver.

And James is on to something as well. We all know that sports fandom changes from when you're a kid to you're an adult. You may not be as fanatical about one or two drivers as an adult as you were in high school. 

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Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!