Dale Earnhardt Jr. laps the NASCAR field with TV commercials

NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt, Jr. performs burnouts while promoting AMP Energy Orange energy drink at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas on Wednesday, Mar. 6, 2013. (Jessica Ebelhar/Las Vegas Review-Journal) NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt, Jr. performs burnouts while promoting AMP Energy Orange energy drink at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas on Wednesday, Mar. 6, 2013. (Jessica Ebelhar/Las Vegas Review-Journal)

Unless it is George Foreman and his grills or the woman who plays Flo for Progressive Insurance, is there anybody who has appeared in more television commercials than Dale Earnhardt Jr.?

At the end of an interview last week at Las Vegas Motor Speedway during which he discussed myriad topics of substance, the retired NASCAR superstar turned NBC analyst was asked how many commercials he had appeared in.

“I have no idea,” Earnhardt said.

What about a favorite?

“Oh, man …”

These were three he came up with on the spot:

— Amp Energy. “The one with the gorilla.” The ape tries to take down Junior several times during a 30-second spot. Junior fights back with forearm shivers and 800 pounds of Amp Energy-generated force. “Boom, boom, boom, boom,” sings John Lee Hooker in the background.

— Amp Energy: “Carrying the camel on my back to win the camel race. That was fun.” The camel drops to his knees, out of fuel. Junior slams an Amp Energy, picks up the camel, carries it on his back across the finish line. “Just don’t leak any fluids on me,” Junior mirthfully says to the camel.

— Budweiser: “The ones we did years ago, with the ‘Lipstick in the Car.’ “ A supermodel on the airport tarmac tells Junior she’ll call him when she gets to Los Angeles. Her plane takes off overhead, Junior notices a lipstick tube in the front seat. He puts the hammer down, beats her plane to LA, hands the supermodel the lipstick. “I think you forgot something,” Junior says proudly. To which the supermodel replies with a cynical grin: “This isn’t mine.”

I mentioned that my favorite was the Diet Mountain Dew call that used Junior’s race car to flush ducks from the underbrush. But that was before Dale Earnhardt Jr. reminded me of “Lipstick in the Car.”

Green, white, checkered

— Leftovers from South Point 400 weekend: Semi-retired NASCAR racer Brendan Gaughan gave a rousing command to start engines and forgot nary a word; Stan Mullis, a regular at the LVMS Bullring, started 40th and was credited with 37th place in the DC Solar 300 Xfinity Series race after pulling his No. 13 Dodge behind the wall with a vibration; the high temperature on race day was 100 degrees — compared to a brisk 58 degrees during the Pennzoil 400 LVMS race in spring.

— It was another bittersweet IndyCar season for Schmidt Peterson Motorsports, the race team co-owned by Henderson’s Sam Schmidt. James Hinchcliffe and rookie Robert Wickens finished tied for 10th in the championship won by Scott Dixon for the fifth time while Wickens is facing a long recovery after suffering spinal and other injuries in a devastating crash at Pocono, Pennsylvania. “I don’t know what the future holds for me,” Wickens said in a video message to his fans on social media. “It’s going to be a very long road to recovery.”

— Tickets for Saturday night’s stock car racing program at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway Bullring have been discounted to $5 and $4 for seniors 55 and over and military personnel. (Children 12 and under are free as usual.) A 50-lap NASCAR Super Late Models race tops the card that begins at 7 p.m., and the Late Model Truck Series also will appear.

Contact Ron Kantowski at rkantowski@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0352. Follow @ronkantowski on Twitter.