Not the perfect ending, but Junior's just getting started

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- When the 50th running of the Daytona 500 was finally in the books Sunday night, Dale Earnhardt Jr. was nowhere to be found in Victory Lane, where he had been beginning to get very comfortable at Daytona International Speedway.

Instead, he was found limping on his sore right foot, which he blamed on a new gas pedal in his No. 88 Chevrolet. Members of the media, a few stray fans and Earnhardt's public-relations entourage were in fast pursuit as he picked his way through the garage area after finishing ninth in the historic Great American Race.

• Send Joe your thoughts
• Joe's Community page

It wasn't the perfect week for Junior, although at times it seemed it was going to be exactly that. It wasn't the ending to the week that he, his new car owner nor his legions of loyal fans envisioned.

But it was good enough.

After winning the Budweiser Shootout non-points race eight days earlier and his Gatorade Duel qualifying race last Thursday, Earnhardt entered the 500 as the prohibitive favorite in the eyes of many. It was clear that he had quickly adapted to his new Hendrick Motorsports racing home, and that the No. 88 Chevy he had been driving was wicked fast on the 2.5-mile Daytona tri-oval.

He led on three occasions for 12 laps Sunday, but never really considered himself the best car on the track. In the end, it became clear he wasn't -- and afterward he sounded like a man pleased to put the last eight days behind him, relieved that it was judged a resounding success despite the disappointment of fading from contention for what might have been a crowning win over the final 20 laps.

"I was really satisfied with how the week went," said Earnhardt, who until this season had driven a No. 8 Chevrolet for Dale Earnhardt Inc. his entire Sprint Cup career. "Believe me, it could have been a whole lot different. It could have been disastrous. It could have been a struggle. We could have run terrible. We could have had a lot of mishaps and misfortunes.

"But we were lucky and fortunate. We had some success and we've got something good to build on. I think the cars are going to be great this year. The team and I got to work together in a race situation several times, which helped in us getting to really know each other. I think those guys are really excited about the rest of the year."

Too much jabbering
It might have been different for Earnhardt Sunday -- but probably not -- if the driver and his spotter weren't encountering some communication difficulties shortly after the night's fourth caution flag came out. It followed an accident that sent two-time defending champion Jimmie Johnson, one of Junior's new teammates at Hendrick Motorsports, spinning on Lap 178 of the 200-lap event.

"I don't know what's going on with our radios," Earnhardt complained at the time. "People keep keying their mikes."

As his spotter attempted to reply, crew chief Tony Eury Jr. came on the radio and interrupted.

"I was going to tell you to pit right here and put on four tires. But y'all was jabberin'," Eury said.

"That's what you get for waiting so long," Earnhardt shot back.

By the time he came around the track again to complete another caution lap, Earnhardt already had convinced himself that pitting wouldn't have been a good idea anyway. As Eury had told him when he took the lead earlier -- holding it from Lap 162 through Lap 168 -- he was "better off out front. It's going to get pretty wild out there."

And it did.

"I don't want to be back up in that mess anyway," Earnhardt said as he moved to the front on his old tires.

In the end, though, the old tires weren't good enough to keep him there. Or maybe it was just that the car wasn't quite good enough to win all along -- or maybe, as Junior himself later suggested, he just didn't make the right decisions behind the wheel down the stretch.

"I didn't want to pit. The track was cooling down. I had great grip. Tires weren't really an issue," Earnhardt said. "Yeah, I mean I would have loved to have had four tires -- but would we have been able to come back up through there [after giving up the track position to get them]?

"We hadn't been great all night. We had been OK and we were hanging on, really, to fifth place most of the day. But I don't think we could have drove up by the 18 [Kyle Busch] or the 20 [Tony Stewart] and the guys that were outrunning us all day. I needed to be in front of 'em."

A good start
So what if he couldn't stay in front of 'em? As Earnhardt said, it could have been so much worse.

He left Daytona Sunday night with fewer questions hanging over his head than when he had arrived. Right out of the box, he proved he could win races in his new Hendrick car, albeit shorter, non-points ones. He still hasn't won a points race since May of 2006 at Richmond, a span that stretched to 63 events in a row without a trip to Victory Lane after Sunday.

There were brief moments Sunday when it appeared the drought might be over, the perfect week for Junior complete. But over those final 20 laps on the old tires, that script ended up in the trash can and Junior had to settle for what he could get.

"I couldn't do much. We were just in a box there at the end," he said. "We couldn't make any more moves than the ones I was making, and the ones I was making weren't doing any good. So I was getting frustrated.

"But we're happy with ninth. We'll take that and try to build on it and try to have a good year the rest of the season. It was touch and go at the end. I'm just glad we got it home in one piece."

That was more than what Hendrick teammates Johnson, Casey Mears and Gordon could say they did. Johnson suffered damage when he spun out, and faded to a 27th-place finish after sitting on the pole. Mears was running in the top five when he made a poor decision, trying to block Tony Stewart so late that Mears ended up sending himself sliding into the wall, which led to him finishing 35th. Gordon suffered a broken suspension and returned to the track after getting it repaired, but finished 14 laps down in 39th.

So as had been the case much of the eight-day stretch dating back to the Shootout, it was left to Earnhardt to carry the Hendrick Chevrolet banner on a night that ended up being dominated by Dodges and Toyotas.

He didn't do as well as he might have, but he did more than all right.

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.