Vision quest: Kyle Busch trumps Junior in exposure

In a strange twist of irony, Dale Earnhardt Jr. is not the early Sprint Cup leader in terms of sponsor exposure despite his improved performance so far in the 2011 season.

That honor goes to Kyle Busch. Joyce Julius & Associates (JJA), an Ann Arbor, Mich.-based firm that specializes in measuring the worth of television exposure, pegged Busch’s value at $28.4 million through 12 NASCAR Cup races.

That’s $6.6 million more than runnerup Earnhardt Jr.’s tally of $21.8 million through the running of the Coke 600 at Charlotte in late May.

While it’s true that Busch has been in the spotlight for the wrong reasons of late – his run-in with Kevin Harvick at Darlington and infamous 128 mph speeding ticket fell within the range of this analysis period – the Joe Gibbs Racing driver had been interviewed longer and mentioned more frequently than anyone else in the series.

It’s worth noting that the JJA study focuses only on Sprint Cup broadcasts. Busch is also a focal point in Nationwide and Truck Series events given his success for Joe Gibbs Racing and Kyle Busch Motorsports, respectively.

Busch often faces some fan criticism from his participation in those lower series, but you can understand why sponsors such as Z-Line Designs insist that he’s behind the wheel when their logos are on the car.

It can be argued that Busch leads all drivers in terms of talent and transgressions in 2011, but there’s no denying that he’s become NASCAR’s most visible driver so far this year.