Earnhardt Jr. Leads Most Laps At Martinsville

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Apr 02, 2008

Last Sunday at Martinsville Speedway brought an under-the-radar sixth-place finish, Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s fifth result of ninth or better in six Sprint Cup starts this year. Everybody’s waiting for the end of that now 68-race-long winless streak, which dates back to Junior’s last victory at Richmond International Raceway almost two years ago. That will come, eventually. Right now, he’s doing the less glamorous but absolutely necessary under-the-basket dirty work of getting himself in contention for the championship, churning out top-10 after top-10 to solidify his place in the Chase.

“The wins will come,” Earnhardt said after the Martinsville race. “We just have to be patient and be happy and mindful about the points we are getting in this stretch. We have a little bit of a period in the summer where we go to tracks that we are off and on, hot and cold at. We need to get a good base of points built up as early as we can, in case we have any kind of struggles in mid-season, so we’re just trying to be guarded and smart.”

They’re doing that, and in the process dispelling the myth that Junior is simply a last name incapable of challenging for a title on his own merits. His detractors—and for all his popularity, there are many of them, people who think he gets attention disproportionate to his 17 career race wins—have been waiting for his fall, waiting for him to get into that unparalleled Hendrick Motorsports equipment and embarrass himself. It hasn’t happened. If anything, the cynics have grown strangely silent as Junior’s early-season march has continued. He’s now fourth in points, 69 behind leader Burton. He’d be higher if he hadn’t been taken out in a weeper-induced wreck at California, his one poor finish of the season.

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