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Going to Talladega, Junior clinging to Chase life
By admin | September 28, 2008
By Richard Allen
For the second week in a row within the Chase for the Championship, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. was never really a factor in terms of having a chance to win in the Camping World 400 at the Kansas Speedway.
After getting off to a solid start with a Top 5 finish in New Hampshire, Junior’s Chase run has essentially fallen silent. The #88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet was an ill handling machine from the start on the 1.5 mile track and never showed significant improvement.
Earnhardt placed 13th at the checkered flag. That may not sound like such a poor finish until it is considered that 10 fellow Chasers were ahead of him. He is now 190 points behind leader Jimmie Johnson.
When asked to pick one track in which Junior would have the best possible chance at making up a big points deficit, most would say that Talladega would be the place. Granted, the popular driver has five wins on the Alabama speedway, but his most recent statistics do not bode well for a comeback.
Over the past seven races on NASCAR longest track Junior has only two Top 10 finishes. He has only raced there once since driving for Hendrick Motorsports. He finished 10th earlier this year in his current ride.
While it is true that he has run well enough to win within that seven race stretch, he has shown a certain degree of vulnerability to misfortune that once was not evident on the restrictor plate track.
The most a driver can earn for winning a Sprint Cup race is 195 points. The fewest number of points a driver can get is 34 which makes for a difference of 161 points. Considering Junior’s current position, he needs to win and lead the most laps at Talladega while hoping that at least one, or even two, of the top Chasers finish near the bottom.
With the ever looming threat of “The Big One”, a scenario like that is always possible. However, Junior’s recent record on the track does not necessarily guarantee he would be able to take advantage of any misfortune the leaders might have.
Richard Allen is a member of the National Motorsports Press Association. His weekly column appears in The Mountain Press every Wednesday.
Topics: Articles |
September 28th, 2008 at 10:16 pm
I am a Junior fan but I don’t think he will ever win many races or championships with Eury as his CC. No consistency and they never seem to make the car better. It always seems to get worse the longer the race goes.
September 29th, 2008 at 6:38 am
Wonder if all of the Jr. fans still think a trained Monkey can win races in an HMS Car?
September 29th, 2008 at 8:31 am
i am a JR fan too and I was so disgusted with his team’s performance that I turned the race off and went out and took the dogs for a walk. When I heard Jr yelling for changes and Tony Jr telling him to bring the car in and he would throw a whole bunch of changes at it, I figured they were done, not for that race, but probably the whole season. I think the big boss needs to sit down and look at Chad’s play book and Tony Jr’s play books and see what the differences are since both drivers seek to like the same setups. Maybe Rick can see where they are going wrong. My better half says they have just given Jr’s cars to Jeff, and Jeff’s cars to Jr. Sure seems like it.
September 29th, 2008 at 8:48 am
I’m a junior fan also, I watch HOTPASS and to tell you the truth, I think Jr. gets tired, and starts over driving the car. He exited his car Sunday looking completely spent. I think He needs to workout a lot more, he doesn’t seem to have the stamina. I don’t think it’s Tony Jr’s fault. Jr seems to be over driving the car. Sometimes you have to slow down to go fast.
September 29th, 2008 at 9:15 am
Larry has nailed it. Jr is in terrible shape and I’m now convinced the reason Rick Hendrick hired Mark Martin is to provide Jr an example he respects. JJ, Edwards, Biffle even Gordon looked like they could have run another race.
Knock off the extracurricular activities, get on a treadmill or bike, and get yourself in top shape.
September 29th, 2008 at 9:37 am
Really what has Jr done to deserve so much loyalty. Tony’s not the issue. The set up for all the HMS cars is pretty much the same. JJ is a better driver than the rest. He and Jeff have the same setup and he is consistently driving the same car to victories. There is no conspiracy to change out Jeff’s cars for Jr’s. That’s nonsense, people make too many excuses for Jr. Its always easier to blame someone else than to look in the mirror and see the common issue is Jr. Both of Jr’s team mates take credit for their failures in the car, maybe he should learn a little from them.
September 29th, 2008 at 1:14 pm
I have been a jr. fan since day one , but you have to face facts, jr. has got to get his butt off the couch and quit playing those stupid computer games and get in shape. how much longfer does he think he can go on? I bet he is the only driver that doesn’t work out, you can see it in his face after a race.
September 29th, 2008 at 2:03 pm
Maybe the evil Step-Mother had it right all along.
Maybe Jr. does need to decide whether he wants to be a race car driver or a celebrity/night club owner.
September 29th, 2008 at 3:04 pm
Jr. can drive a race car but his physical condition has to be dealt with at some point by HMS. The difference between he and his peers after a race is startling. Most of these guys have embraced, not just accepted, a healthier lifestyle and the results are obvious. Compare a Carl Edwards to Jr. after a race; if you didn’t know how they had spent their Sunday afternoon you would have no idea they spent it doing the same thing.
I know it pains a lot of Jr’s. fans to read it but racinsince55 may have hit the nail on the head: The (so-called) evil step-mother saw much more than any of us ever will. She may have been ahead of her time.
Compare Jrs. physique now to his of a few years ago. He’s far too young for that much middle aged spread.
September 30th, 2008 at 10:45 am
I don’t know what his daily routine is and I seriously of doubt any of the armchair experts on forums do either as to him working out or not. Let’s face facts folks you really don’t know what his lifestyle is like so presuming this or that is just using SWAG for the most part.
Nobody knows what the condition was inside the car Sunday but yet all assume because he wasn’t giving ESPN face time afterward it’s because he’s out of shape. Maybe it was because of being jobbed by ESPN over the radio transmissions a couple weeks ago that seemed to go on and on well after the fact.
As to the Miss Daisy mistress of DEI comments her opinions are getting less and less relevant as time goes on, she will be lucky to even be in the business in three years, I noticed she lost Big Daddy Menard and Sonny today as a sponsor and driver ouch. Possible she would have done better after all with an out of shape celebrity in the Chase as none of her “race car drivers” seem to be up to the challenge. I guess her eye for driving talent is about on a par with her ability to run a large company.
I also find it fascinating why non fans always seem to take the time to hate post on a Junior story, seems like you would have something better to do with your time like support your own driver.
September 30th, 2008 at 11:23 am
I’m NOT a Jr. fan but….. give the guy some credit. He’s still in 8th with a lot of big name drivers having much worse finishes than he is. There are also a lot of guys in much better shape than Jr. and still trailing him in the standings. What about Mears? He’s a decent driver with the same equipment and appears to be in decent shape but he’s not running as well as Jr. either. Is Stewart in shape? Granted he’s not having a very good year either but he’s won a ton of races while being out of shape.
I agree that fitness is improtant to success on the track but I think chemistry is much more important and it may be time for Hendrick to get a new crew chief behind Jr.
September 30th, 2008 at 11:25 am
HMS fired Martin because he is mark Martin…. another big name with big marketability and the guy can flat-out drive! I don’t think it had anything to do with Jr.
September 30th, 2008 at 11:26 am
oops…. I meant “hired” not “fired”
September 30th, 2008 at 3:05 pm
I don’t know how you people can say the hendrick cars are the same, that is just plain stupid, and for this bulls— of teams sharing is a lot of bull too, chad isn’t going to tell anyone what he does to his car. if the cars were the same they would handle the same, if they were to change crew chiefs with their other team mates would johnson still be the top dog? I don’t think so.
September 30th, 2008 at 3:16 pm
For anyone to come in as a new team for the first year and run in the Top l0, win a race, and be in the chase from the start of the races til now is not an easy feat, look at Kasey Kahne he’s a prime example, Jeremy Mayfield made the chase 2 years and Kasey didn’t so they put everything into Kasey’s car and he still can’t get in - yet JR can come in with new pressure, new team, new crew, new cars and be in the chase and he can win it, it is NOT over for him, he has good tracks, ‘Dega, Atlanta, Martinsville - move over boys and shut up all the naysaying - Jr has the talent and he can do it and Tony Jr. is the only one he would want on his pit box so ifyour a true fan, SUPPORT him and have you looked at him in his firesuit - he looks in great shape to me.
October 1st, 2008 at 1:13 pm
Somethings wrong. Jr has the same H.P and setup as Johnson. Either jr. Can’t drive or Eury can’t set the car up.