Earnhardt Jr. standing out for all the wrong reasons

At the beginning of every week, Hendrick Motorsports executive vice president Marshall Carlson e-mails an inspirational quote to each of the more than 500 employees who work at the organization's sprawling campus. Monday, it was a maxim from Publilius Syrus, a writer from the days of the Roman Empire: "Where there is unity, there is always victory." It seems more than appropriate, given the trips being made to Victory Lane by different drivers on what certainly appears to be NASCAR's deepest team.

No big deal

Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Casey Mears agree that what happened in Phoenix was just a racing thing and won't carry over at Talladega.

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Hendrick rolls into Talladega Superspeedway this weekend having won three in a row, with each of those victories being notable for different reasons. Jimmie Johnson won at Martinsville to record his fifth triumph in his last six starts in the south Virginia short track. Jeff Gordon won at Texas, snapping a 47-race winless streak with his first career victory on the big tri-oval. And last weekend at Phoenix, Mark Martin won for the first time in more than three years, and in the process became only the fourth driver 50 or older to prevail on NASCAR's premier level.

Three different drivers from a single team winning three consecutive races is rare, but far from unheard of; Hendrick has accomplished the feat twice -- most recently with Johnson, Gordon and Casey Mears in 2007 -- as did teams owned by Carl Kiekhaefer in 1956. Now it's time to see if Hendrick can hit the superfecta, and take four in a row. And at big, fast Talladega, everyone knows what that means.

All eyes are on Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Of course, that's nothing unusual. NASCAR's popular driver should rightly be viewed as a threat anytime the series pulls into the north Alabama restrictor-plate track, given his record there. Earnhardt has won five career Cup Series races at Talladega, including four in a row during the Dale Earnhardt Inc. plate-track heyday. Since then, good finishes at Talladega have been substantially more difficult to find; in his last eight starts there, he's cracked the top-10 only twice, and failed to finish four times. Still, there's no question that he not only knows the place, but likes it -- something that can't be said for every driver -- and feels completely comfortable in that hornet's nest of a draft.

"I go in with a real good attitude," Earnhardt said. "When you go into something with a good attitude, you normally get good results. Dad was real good at it. We always just put a little extra attention into those races and those race cars that we took to those tracks. We spent a little more time with them, and we just take it very, very seriously."

For Earnhardt, at Talladega and everywhere else, there's always pressure to win. His massive fan base expects it. The media is always asking him why he hasn't won more than just once in his last 106 Cup starts, questions that Earnhardt, to his credit, always tries to answer. The legacy of his father and his last name are always there. And now you have the exploits of the other Hendrick drivers the last three races, competitors using parts and equipment virtually identical to those used in Earnhardt's No. 88 car. And it becomes quite clear that the greatest pressure Earnhardt may face -- other than that which he places on himself -- comes from inside the walls of his own shop.

Sticking with Eury

Some think Dale Earnhardt Jr. would be better with a different crew chief but team owner Rick Hendrick says Tony Eury Jr. is the right guy for the job.

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Now, that's not to say Rick Hendrick is lording over Junior, demanding to know when he's going to win. If anything, the car owner has been exceedingly patient with Earnhardt, understanding of the burdens that go along with his fame and his last name, showing a touch that's almost fatherly -- understandable, given the close relationship between Earnhardt and Hendrick going back to Junior's maternal grandfather, the great car builder Robert Gee. But like all professional athletes, race car drivers are inherently competitive, and these days Hendrick has looked like a game of "can you top this?" Gordon has won. Johnson has won. Even Martin, years past his planned retirement, has won. In that kind of environment, nobody wants to be the last driver waiting to return to Victory Lane.

But that's the situation Earnhardt finds himself in today. Many members of Junior Nation rejoiced when their man signed with Hendrick Motorsports two years ago. He was finally out from under stepmother Teresa's thumb, clear of all that family bickering over at DEI, racing for an organization that consistently fields stellar equipment and has won more races and championships than any other team competing today. That's all well and good -- if you win. If you don't, and everyone around you gets their turn spraying champagne and kissing trophies, any shortcomings are magnified. And suddenly, you become noticeable for all the wrong reasons.

The breakthrough could very well come this week. Of course, many thought the breakthrough could come at Phoenix, or at Bristol, or at Atlanta, tracks where Earnhardt has been traditionally strong but this time around yielded only mediocrity. Should something go awry at Talladega, everyone will wonder if the breakthrough will come next week at Richmond, a place where last year Earnhardt had the spring race nearly won until Kyle Busch's front fender intervened. But Gordon is the points leader. Johnson is hot on his heels. Martin is storming up the standings. They all have race victories and seem bound for the Chase. Meanwhile Earnhardt is 19th in points, and trying to make something happen. The longer it takes, and the more success his Hendrick teammates continue to enjoy, the greater the pressure becomes.

Surely, Earnhardt knows this. He's a smart, savvy guy who understands the sport and his place it in, who fully grasps the phalanx of expectations pointed at him each time he steps into a race car. And somewhere in there is the driver who won 17 races between 2000 and 2006, who finished inside the top five in final points three times, who showed every indication of living up to the hopes so many had for him. As people like Gordon and Martin and Jeff Burton would surely attest, dry spells don't mean drivers have simply forgotten how to drive. But sometimes, Victory Lane can seem a lot farther away. And it's getting there, not the journey, that ultimately matters.

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.