Junior's win leads to great weekend for NASCAR

Rain delays and 20-car wrecks notwithstanding, it was a great Fourth of July weekend for NASCAR.

Did we say NASCAR? We meant it was a great weekend for Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Actually it has long been acknowledged, even by NASCAR chairman and CEO Brian France, that the two go hand-in-hand. So when Earnhardt Jr. won Friday's Subway 250 Nationwide Series race at Daytona International Speedway, then followed that up with what he admitted was a "lucky" fourth-place finish in Saturday night's rain-delayed Coke Zero 400 in the Cup Series, it constituted a great weekend on all fronts.

Earnhardt hadn't won in the Nationwide Series since 2006 -- but to be fair, he rarely runs races in the junior circuit any longer. He hasn't won in the Cup Series since June of 2008 -- a span that will reach 76 races if Earnhardt fails to visit Victory Lane following this Sunday's Lifelock.com 400 at Chicagoland Speedway.

If that number sounds familiar, it's because it should. That's precisely how long his last Cup winless streak in points races stretched before he won at Michigan in '08. It sure seems like a greater ruckus was being made about Earnhardt's failure to get to Victory Lane during his previous 76-race winless streak.

It may seem sad to say, but that's because more was expected of him then. When he signed to come on board at star-studded Hendrick Motorsports -- already the home to one four-time Cup champion in Jeff Gordon and also the residence of the driver who now is the sport's only winner of four consecutive titles in Jimmie Johnson -- it was widely expected that Junior would soon be winning multiple races and competing for Cup championships of his own.

It was, he said himself, the whole reason he left the company founded by his late father -- Dale Earnhardt Inc. -- to drive for a new owner in Rick Hendrick. Former three-time champion Darrell Waltrip, now a television analyst, predicted "at least" six wins and a Daytona 500 victory for Earnhardt Jr. in his first season at Hendrick. Asked about that prediction, neither Earnhardt Jr. nor owner Hendrick backed away from it.

But the lofty expectations were never fulfilled. And that was then, this is now. (Continued)