Dale Earnhardt, Jr. may be staring down the barrel of an ugly statistic, but NASCAR’s most-popular driver appears to be competitive once again.
Earnhardt was unable to hold off a hard-charging Kevin Harvick in the final laps of Sunday’s Goody’s 500 at Martinsville Speedway. Despite being forced to settle for a second-place finish, the result marked his best finish since the start of the 2010 season. But with the result, Earnhardt, Jr. has now gone 99-consecutive NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races without a win, a streak that will reach 100 should he fail to find Victory Lane at Texas Motor Speedway this weekend.
Despite approaching such a disparaging milestone, Earnhardt, Jr. appears to be back and fighting to finish among the leaders in 2011. Through six races in 2011 – admittedly a small sample size at the start of a 36-race season – Earnhardt, Jr. sits eighth in NASCAR’s points standings and is posting the best average finish of any season in his 13-year career, 11.2.
But Earnhardt, Jr. isn’t content with the results thus far.
“Well, I ain’t really proved it to myself yet. I’ll let you know when I feel like I’m back, personally,” said Earnhardt post-race. “Honestly, the way I feel is I feel fortunate to finish second in a race where we should have finished 10th or ninth or eighth. … I want to finish like this or even run a little better than this every weekend, and we are right on the outside of that. It was frustrating to be that close [to winning]. It was frustrating to be leading the race inside 10 laps to go and be passed.
“But there is definitely a brighter side to what’s going on, too, and I won’t forget to notice that.”
After claiming one win in 2008 and qualifying for the Chase for the Sprint Cup, NASCAR’s postseason, in his first season with Hendrick Motorsports, Earnhardt, Jr. was undeniably in a funk throughout 2009 and 2010. Going winless in that two-year window, he struggled to just five-total top-five finishes and fell outside the top-20 in points each year.
But Earnhardt, Jr.’s struggles seem to be behind him after a strong start to 2011. Following a 24th-place finish to start the season at Daytona, he has claimed five-straight top-12 finishes, a feat last accomplished in 2008 when he was postseason bound. In fact, his three top-10 finishes to start 2011 match the number posted by defending five-time champion Jimmie Johnson.
Whether it’s the off-season change to move Earnhardt, Jr. into the same shop as Hendrick teammate Jimmie Johnson, the pairing with new crew chief Steve Letarte or an unknown factor, Earnhardt is engaged and a factor in 2011. Eager to get back to the winning ways for which he was known early in his career – it seems long ago he won 17 races in a seven-year span – Earnhardt, Jr. sounds as though he knows he’s back.
“We will win our share of races,” said Earnhardt as Harvick celebrated his Martinsville win. “I’ve got a long time to go left.”
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