June 29, 2005

By Rebecca Gladden

Comparing this season to last, Dale Earnhardt Jr. must feel as though he's living through one long nightmare - and wishing someone would please wake him up.

At this point in 2004, Earnhardt Jr. had scored three wins and was ranked second in points, only 27 out of first. So far this year, he has no wins and is 18th in points, 543 out of first. After 16 races last season, Earnhardt had led over 500 laps. So far this season, he has led 5.

The team's miseries were compounded at Infineon Raceway on Sunday, where a mix of mechanical problems and misfortune typified his runs this year.

Earnhardt was hopeful prior to the start of the race after an encouraging tenth-place qualifying effort and a fourth-place Happy Hour run. But the car experienced transmission trouble on the very first turn, and by lap 3 Junior had lost the handle, colliding with Mike Bliss and careening into the wall. He eventually returned to the track 14 laps down with a replacement gear box, finishing the race in 42nd place and dropping another spot in the points to 18th.

"It was broken from the very first turn," Earnhardt said of his transmission. "It was like musical gears: shift-no gear, shift-gear, shift again-no gear, shift-gear. It finally went out completely at the end of the first lap. I was kind of overwhelmed, because there was so much traffic around me and I was just trying not to hit anybody. I feel bad I got into Mike (Bliss), but I was just trying to get out of the way. There were cars on both sides of me, and I was trying to find a gear."

The next-to-last finish tied for Earnhardt's worst of the year. He also finished 42nd in Las Vegas after an early crash in which Earnhardt got into the back of Brian Vickers on Lap 12.

There was little doubt after 16 races last year that Earnhardt would be one of 10 drivers competing for the Cup in the inaugural "Chase for the Championship" season. But that was before a mysterious off-season shakeup at DEI in which Earnhardt and teammate Michael Waltrip swapped crews and cars.

This year, it will take a minor miracle for Junior to make the cut. But miracles do happen, and perhaps that is why Earnhardt, to his credit, remained optimistic in the midst of his dismal day at Sonoma.

Talking to his crew on the radio, Junior expressed satisfaction with the car despite the earlier transmission failure. "This car is going to be good for (Watkins) Glen," Earnhardt declared. "We just need to figure out what happened. Beat yourself up a little bit, but most of all, figure it out, because I want to run this same (stuff) at the Glen. The same style. I want this thing in good shape when we go to the Glen. It's a good car. A real good car."

Earnhardt even gave his crew a mid-race pep talk, addressing not only the day's events, but those of the entire season: "I don't know how much you guys can take. I can take a whole helluva lot. But I worry about you all getting down. Don't get down. Hold your heads up...Just don't believe any of what you read in the papers. Just hang tough. If you think it can't get worse, it will. So don't let it get you down."

Granted, he may have been trying to convince himself as much he was his crew. But Earnhardt demonstrated real leadership in offering encouragement to a team that at that moment had every reason to be discouraged - as did Earnhardt himself.

The emerging trend since Infineon has been to combine the name Dale Earnhardt Jr. with the phrase, "Stick a fork in him."

Apparently, Junior is not ready to pull the plug on his season, and for the time being, neither am I.

The thoughts and ideas expressed by this writer or any other writer on Insider Racing News, are not necessarily the views of the staff and/or management of IRN. Although we may not always agree with what is said, we do feel it's our duty to give a voice to those who have something relevant to say about the sport of auto racing.