Junior looks to shake off '08, build on his successes

This time, for once, Jimmie Johnson followed the lead of Dale Earnhardt Jr.

But growing a beard during the Sprint Cup Series offseason is small-time stuff. It's Earnhardt who wants more of what Johnson has as the three-time defending champion in NASCAR's top series.

Stand by his man

Tony Eury Jr. can handle the criticism when his driver doesn't perform well. But he says the No. 88 team can do better, and he expects nothing less.

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Last year, during his first season as a teammate with Johnson and four-time champion Jeff Gordon at Hendrick Motorsports, Earnhardt got off to his own fast start, only to fade at the finish in 2008. After running second in points much of the season and entering the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship seeded fourth out of the 12 drivers who qualified, one poor finish after another during the Chase's 10 races sent Earnhardt tumbling all the way to 11th in the final standings.

Asked to grade himself and the No. 88 Chevrolet team on the season, Professor Earnhardt did not hold back.

"It was about a 'C.' I was little disappointed in how it ended -- pretty disappointed, actually," he said. "We should have done a lot better in the Chase. I anticipated being a little stronger in the Chase, but we weren't. We weren't as good as any of us had hoped."

Even now, going on three months later, Earnhardt said he is not sure why.

"We didn't finish good in the Chase. We need to do better in that. But I don't really know what to put my finger on exactly what we should do better," said Earnhardt, whose highest finish in a season's final standings is third way back in 2003. "We'll just have to show up at the race track and see what's up, see if we can do better."

It should help that he has a year under his belt at Hendrick Motorsports. Earnhardt admitted that last year he was just a little uneasy, stepping into a new situation with a new team and a new employer after driving for Dale Earnhardt Inc. -- the company founded by his father -- for the first nine seasons of his Cup career. (Continued)