December 21, 2005

By Rebecca Gladden

2005 was Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s sixth year as a full-time NASCAR driver in the Cup series.

Statistically, it was his worst.

Earnhardt's 19th-place points finish was his lowest ever, after finishing fifth in 2004 and third in 2003. His previous low was 16th in 2000, his rookie season. Earnhardt had fewer top-5's and top-10's than any year except 2000. His average starting spot of 24.9 was his worst ever, and his average finish of 20.5 was also the lowest since his rookie year; in fact, he qualified outside the top-35 ten times this year.

Additionally, he had just one win in 2005, making it the only season that he failed to post at least two victories.

Junior led just 169 laps in 2005, by far his lowest number ever; prior to this, he had led more than 1000 laps for three straight years, and even in his rookie year led 426. His six DNF's this year were the most since his rookie season, when he had seven.

But as is often the case in sports, the tale of Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s season was not necessarily in the tape.

To understand what happened to Earnhardt in 2005, you have to start at the end of 2004.

Despite finishing fifth in points with six wins in '04, the season ended on a sour note for Dale Jr. and the 8 team.

According to Earnhardt, he and cousin/car chief Tony Eury Jr., "didn't say five words to each other" during happy hour at Homestead. "We had a real bad day," Earnhardt noted. "It can't be like that."

The ongoing tension between Earnhardt Jr. and Eury Jr. resulted in wholesale changes for both the 8 and 15 teams at DEI. Tony Jr. became crew chief for Michael Waltrip, and Earnhardt's crew chief and uncle Tony Eury Sr. was promoted to Director of Competition for DEI.

As for Earnhardt, he started 2005 with new crew chief Pete Rondeau. He would be the first of three crew chiefs for Earnhardt over the course of the season.

Earnhardt was initially pleased with Rondeau. "I can tell you this," he said after the season's third race in Las Vegas. "I feel better about my situation now than I did a year ago, and that's the truth … Pete is real calm, cool, and collected, and that's what I need to become a better driver."

But after 11 races, Earnhardt was 11th in points with no wins and decided it was time to change crew chiefs again. Starting with race 12 at Charlotte, it was Steve Hmiel on the box for Earnhardt. But Hmiel would be there for just 15 races, helping Junior to his only victory of the season at Chicago in July. Race 26 was Hmiel's last as crew chief. By that time, Earnhardt had slipped to 17th in points and had missed the Chase by a wide margin.

The following week in New Hampshire, with 10 races left in the season, Earnhardt Jr. was reunited with Tony Eury, Jr., this time as Jr.'s crew chief - his third one of the year. For a moment it looked like the magic was back, when Earnhardt posted a top-10 in his first race with Eury Jr. But the team's performance was erratic at best in subsequent weeks, with two more top-10's offset by five races finishing 30th or worse.

Although the stats don't reflect it, Earnhardt's season was successful on a deeper level. He healed his relationship with Tony Eury Jr. and is now looking forward with renewed vigor to success with him. "We didn't change the teams because of a performance issue, we changed it because of an attitude issue," Earnhardt said in August. "Maybe we didn't change it for the right reasons, but the change did what it was supposed to do. It fixed my attitude and it fixed his.

"Sometimes we act like children and need a lesson and sometimes we need to give it to ourselves."

Lesson learned, Dale Earnhardt is hoping to regain his winning form in 2006. "This (season) went by fast," he said at Homestead. "I wish we were racing somewhere next week."

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.