By: DJ DeSpain

The recent successes of the Hendrick Motorsports teams are looking to be the talk of the season so far, especially for Mark Martin. However, limping along in the back is Dale Earnhardt Jr., who after 19 races is ranked 21^st in points.  That is just one position ahead of the driver he replaced in 2008, Casey Mears.

Dale’s cousin, and former crew chief, Tony Eury Jr. recently spoke on the driver’s behalf prior to Chicagoland Speedway. According to him, it’s the media’s fault with their high expectations that is keeping Dale Jr. from driving like he should. OK, by that logic then The Washington Post must have caused Watergate and The Wall Street Journal gave Bernie Madoff the idea to rip off investors.

Other than Eury Jr., nobody believes the media has anything to do with Dale Jr.s performance. Let’s look at the numbers after 19 races for both this year and last year:

Right out of the gate in ’08, he had a very decent year and started the Chase after Richmond in 4^th spot. But, as a sign of things to come, he finished the year 12^th in points, the last spot of the Chase drivers. This year, with 17 races remaining in the season, it’s looking very doubtful that he will manage to up his numbers to match the mid-season stats of ’08.

Even when Kyle Busch was under Hendrick Motorsports with the #5 car, he managed to pull off decent consistent number as shown below after 19 races:

Kyle didn’t make the Chase in ’05, his first full season, but he’s been in it ever since then.

Expectations were high for Dale Jr. when he switched to Hendrick Motorsports, and the first year numbers support those expectations, especially by making the Chase. So, it would follow that if he did good last year, why can’t he do better in ’09 or at least as good as ’08? He’s running the same equipment as the other three Hendrick teams. I would hope that the teams share data amongst themselves about what works and what doesn’t work. However, if there is a bright side, then it is that Dale Jr.’s team should be providing plenty of “what don’t work” data to the other three teams.

So maybe that explains their successes.

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