How low can he go?
Dale Earnhardt Jr. is a seemingly unfathomable 23rd in the current Sprint Cup standings heading into Monday’s rescheduled Heluva Good! Sour Cream Dips at The Glen.
It’s the lowest Earnhardt has ever been in the standings at any one point in a season since he became a full-time driver in the Cup series in 2000.
And given that his lowest season finish to date was 19th in 2005 and 16th in 2007, there’s a possibility that 2009 – Junior’s 10th season in the Cup series – will end up being his worst ever.
The celebrated change in crew chiefs, with Lance McGrew replacing Tony Eury Jr. back in late May, has done nothing to change Earnhardt’s fate.
In the nine races since McGrew assumed the No. 1 position atop the pit box, Junior’s best finish was in their first race together: 12th at Dover. Since then, the driver of the Hendrick Motorsports No. 88 Chevrolet has had a less than inspiring track record, no pun intended.
Since running 12th at Dover, his finishes have been 27th, 14th, 26th, 13th, 39th, 15th, 36th and 28th.
Odds are that kind of trend will continue once the rain-delayed race at Watkins Glen is in the books.
Junior sits an almost inconceivable 1,126 points behind series leader Tony Stewart. Even if he were to win every one of the remaining 15 races, it’s doubtful Junior could overtake Stewart.
Instead, Junior finds himself just four points behind Kevin Harvick, who is in the midst of his worst season in Cup racing, and a mere 24 points ahead of former Dale Earnhardt Inc. teammate Martin Truex Jr., also having his worst Cup campaign to date.
Even Joey Logano, in 19th going into Watkins Glen, is ahead of Earnhardt, more than 100 points in front.
While Earnhardt would like to finish as strong as possible, the question is can he? Can he rebound in the remaining 15 races and maybe make it back to, say, 15th place once the season concludes?
That’s a pretty big goal, given that the current driver in 15th, Clint Bowyer (who at 115 points behind 12th-ranked Greg Biffle, is in danger of missing the Chase for the first time in his career), is nearly 400 points ahead of Earnhardt.
Once we get through the final Chase qualifying race at Richmond, I predict Earnhardt is going to start to show some significant progress. With nothing really left to run for other than pride, Earnhardt and McGrew can take chances, experiment with some new parts or strategies and get a head start on 2010.
Realistically, I see Earnhardt finishing as high as 20th position if he gets some breaks – but potentially as low as 30th if the hits he’s had thus far continue for the remainder of the season.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 08/09 at 09:14 PMIt’s time people just have to let go of there expectations of Junior and finally realize that changing Eury Jr for Mcgrew or any other repositioning or changes just are not going to change the fact Dale has lost it .and it isn’t going to come back ,wanting to hope in the last five races or a surge of great racing during the last ten ,which at that point wont matter,is not going to happen. in the first place and as far out on points that he is he has no chance to improve his position enough to get into the Chase. Junior is a good person ive met him numerius times but that does’nt make a good driver I wish him all the best in the world but you ,I believe,are seeing the demise of a legend in the making
....and a speeding penalty on pit road at The Glen is not going to help matters….
.... and Junior’s day is done as he wrecks his car at The Glen….
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