Tough two-week stretch for Earnhardt Jr.

RICHMOND, Va. -- Two weeks ago, Dale Earnhardt Jr. stood in Victory Lane at Talladega Superspeedway a championship contender, having surged from 29th to fifth in the point standings after nine weeks of competition.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. waits in the garage for his car to be repaired. He reentered the race but finished 73 laps down.

14 days and two tough crashes later, he's lost seven positions and 166 points to series leader Sterling Marlin. Following Talladega, he trailed Marlin by 191 points. The deficit currently stands at 357 points.

A violent wreck last week at California dropped him back to ninth in the standings, and a spin 148 laps into the Pontiac Excitement 400 Sunday at Richmond International Raceway has dropped him out of the top-10.

After Sunday's 36th-place finish, he ranks 12th in the overall standings.

"I lost the Budweiser car off Turn 4 and slammed into the wall, bent the rear end," Earnhardt Jr. said. "Tough day."

Junior hasn't experienced many tough days in Richmond. In fact, in five career starts coming into this weekend, he'd posted one victory, two top-three finishes, four top-10 finishes, and had never finished worse than 13th.

Junior returned to the track on lap 205, some 54 laps behind Ricky Rudd, the race leader at the time. He finished some 73 laps down to race winner Tony Stewart.