Daytona Proves Earnhardt Jr. is an Average Racer
Dale Earnhardt Jr. is NASCAR's most popular driver by far. In terms of performance on the track in recent years, and especially at this year's Daytona 500, he, clearly, is also the sport's most overrated driver.
The Earnhardt name is iconic in NASCAR circles. Face it, the late, great Dale Sr. is a god to auto racing fans. It is no wonder Junior is celebrity. But, how much of it is by name? Many of those cheering faces in the crowd might be making the mistake of believing the son is a chip off the old man's block.
Dale Junior has still yet to prove that he possess the Earnhardt racing gene. Amid high expectations, currently, he does not rank among Sprint Cup's best drivers.
So far, his best year was in 2004 where he won six races and finished fifth in the final point standings. Since then, NASCAR's most popular driver has won 3 times over a total of 145 races. This is his second year as a member of the best team in racing, Hendrick Motorsports, where three time defending champion Jimmie Johnson, four time champ Jeff Gordon and Mark Martin are his teammates. Junior certianly is not the best driver in the Hendrick stable. Would he rank four out four on his own team?
Absolutely! There are no excuses for his mistakes in Sunday's Daytona 500. Earnhardt made two critical errors on pit road that resulted in a 27th place finish. He completely missed his stall on an early pit stop, needing to circle around once more before pitting. Later, number 88 had to take a one lap penalty for stopping on the line outside his stall. There is a notion in Junior Nation is that Earnhardt owns Daytona. Experienced and capable drivers should not screw up like he did, should they?
Earnhardt's lap penalty would figure in the race's most controversial moment. Trying to get his lap back, Junior tried to pass Brian Vickers, who was also a lap down. Vickers wouldn't have it, so he blocked him. Earnhardt then tapped Vicker's car, sending it to the outside wall, creating a ten car accident. It appears that it might have been an aggressive Junior who caused the incident. Maybe it was just a racing incident. Given what I know about the under-performance of Junior over the years, I would tend to believe the former, not the ladder.
NASCAR did no help the conspiracy rumors of aiding their superstar by not penalizing Earnhardt five laps, as they did with Jason Leffler when Leffler essentially did the same thing in Saturday's Nationwide race. My initial reaction after Junior's accident was "where's his penalty?"
One thing that is in Earnhardt's favor is time. He still can prove to me and many sensible racing fans that he does indeed have what it takes to win races consistently. For now, he is only famous mostly by name.
Dale Jr. drives a lot better than this guy writes.