 Photo by Steve Langley |
Dale Earnhardt Jr. had better be stepping it up a bit, or history is going to repeat itself and he won’t be making the trip to the banquet in Las Vegas. |
His year has not gotten off to a great start for one reason or another, but mostly simple mistakes in the pits lately have been the cause of his bad finishes. Bad pit stops, loose lug nuts, missing his pit stall… all have led to many of the problems with the finishes that could have been much better.
In ten races, Dale Jr. has only three top tens and one top five for the season. He’s currently 18th in the NASCAR Sprint Cup points, after loosing three spots last week in Richmond.
Earnhardt’s best start of eleventh came at Talladega, and his best finish of second came at the same track. He finished 39th at the Auto Club 500 in California, 31st at Phoenix, 27th at Daytona and Richmond, 20th at Texas, 14th for Bristol, 11th at Atlanta, 10th at Las Vegas, and 8th at Martinsville.
In 2008 he finished 12th in the chase, 557 points from the the Sprint Cup winner Jimmie Johnson. In 2007 he never even made the chase and ended up a disappointing 16th . In 2006, Dale Jr. made the chase and after the dust had settled in Homestead-Miami, he ended up 5th in the standings.
So in 2006, he made it, 2007, he didn’t, in 2008 he did, so if history repeats itself, he will not make the chase this year. Two of his three teammates are poised for the chase and Mark Martin has been making a charge for the 12th spot in the last couple races.
There are other high-profile drivers, not in the top 12, that is surprising which include Kevin Harvick, Kasey Kahne, and Dale Jr. It goes to show, teams are finally figuring out this COT car, and the competition is getting tighter and tighter. All that, and throw in a little luck, this could get very interesting before the year is out!
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Makes you wonder how Stale Heartburn JR. got to be the most popular driver, Maybe it’s because of his Dad’s accomplishments as a race car driver. How long are the Sheep of Jumior Nation going to support JR. while he screws up race after race. I say get rid of Tony Eruy jr, then we will know exactly how much talent JR. doesn’t have. He does sell alot of T-Shirts though!!!
Well, when he missed the first Chase, NASCAR came back and added two more places the next year–covered where he finished the previous year. So I guess if he finishes 18th this year, we will see 20 cars in the 2010 Chase. NASCAR has to have their guy in there or the world stops turning.
Time for JR to retired and in fact retired from all motorsports, as driver and owner and fan….. He is not needed….. worthless…. Eury is a great boss, does not need JR. Jr afterall causes 90% of all wrecks and should be BANNED by NASCAR.
Are some of you fans of only drivers who can win races? That sure is not being a fan. A real fan as I said in my commentary is one who is a fan, win or lose. I guarantee you that Kyle Busch, the arrogant butt could not hold a candle to Dale JR’s butt nor any other current or past driver. JR gets voted MVP not because of his driving talents, because of his personality and the fact he is a gentleman. Look how many years Bill Elliott won MVP and he sure was not winning anything for many of those years yet he is still know as Awesome Bill from Dawsonville. He is a gentleman like Mark Martin. I have never hated any driver. At least I have never said it or put it in print. How can you hate any of them even as arrogant of a driver Kyle Busch was last night when the poor little baby blew a tire and Matt Kenseth went on to win. Cry babies like him, sore losers if he does not win any race should not have ONE fan. Oh I am sure he does. Maybe 3 or 4 if you count family and his trophy girlfriend who in my opinion only is there for the $$$$ only. Sure is not for KB’s great personality and charm. Is antics when being knocked out of a race are getting SO old.
Well say what you want but after the last race at Pocono I don’t see Jr impoving at all. Jr is voted Most Popular Driver year in and year out. But it’s the kind of voting that just happened on American Idol. Purchase a program for your computer that allows a person to get around voting and you vote 1,200 an hour and anyone can win. Does Jr have a lot of talent driving? From my point of view NO. What has happened to give Jr the support he has is his DAD’S name. Does Jr have the talent to win a championship the answer to that is NO also. Can’t stand Kyle but Hendrick made a big mistake getting rid of Kyle to bring Jr into his stable. It’s to bad that daddy didn’t do the same for Kerry that he did for Dale Jr. I believe we would see Kerry out driving his half brother. Will Jr even make the Chase…NOPE. it’s not Eury Jr or his crew who is the trouble it’s the spoiled kid who was handed his race car on a silver platter, and he doesn’t know how to get the job done….
yea true about jr no matter how much i loved his dad he is no racer….but what i dont hear is the fans makeing a big deal out of that…[censorsed] jimmie johnson..i mean all these people saying junk about jr…they are loseing focus on nascar stealing there money an time with this junk they call raceing for a championship…i mean come on you [censored] this guy isnt that good i mean [censored] look how many times they have been caught cheating…nascar is turning a blind eye to it. besides this junk is trash an so is nascar!!! an the [censored] fools who run it an spend there money on it!!!! its all a set up an anyone with common sense knows it….