Twitter Rating Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s season
October 29, 2008 by Kerry Murphey
Filed under News
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
NASCAR’s most popular driver once again looks like one of NASCAR’s best drivers.
That’s a summation of Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s 2008 season, with three weeks remaining. It’s also solace for the millions of fans who support the driver of the No. 88 AMP Energy/National Guard Chevrolet.
Earnhardt has fallen out of contention for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship, but from a big picture perspective, what’s important is that he was in contention to begin with. Earnhardt returned to the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup field this season, his first season with Hendrick Motorsports following his dramatic departure from Dale Earnhardt Inc.
Earnhardt comes into Texas 10th in the series standings He also comes in with a lasting memory: In 2000, as a rookie fresh off winning back-to-back championships in the NASCAR Nationwide Series, Earnhardt got his first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victory at Texas.
Afterward, he was joined in Victory Lane for an emotional celebration with his father, seven-time champion Dale Earnhardt.
“I feel pretty good about how we ran this year and how we have been able to be fast pretty much every week,” Earnhardt said last week at Atlanta, where he finished 11th. “I will just try to go in, do it again, do it better next year … I’m real confident in our ability to go out next year and make a better showing.”
Loading ...
Switching to a Hendrick team was a plus for Earnhardt. However, I think the overall expectation for JR. to improve was/is greater than his accomplishments this season.
JR’s overall ranking in 2007 was 13th.. Currently for 2008, Dale JR. is ranked 10th. Definitely better than 2007. And yes, there are still three races left for him to improve, but don’t count on it.