Are you a Dale Jr Fan???

It's a tough year for fans of Dale Earnhardt, Jr. As you can see from the chart below, the boy's in a world of hurt in the NASCAR CUP points battle for 2009. I don't believe I've ever seen him have such a poor year. He's mired in 22nd position in the CUP standings and is 446 points short of the cutoff point for making the Chase to the Championship for the last 10 races of the season.

I have no idea how or why this type thing happens, but JR's slide seemed to start at the end of the 2008 season. That was a season that started with promise and he made the Chase. By the end of the 10-race Chase to the Cup, Dale Jr finished in the final Chase position, 12th, 557 points behind the winner, Jimmie Johnson.

It's almost as if JR couldn't make the car work for him; like the driving paradigm changed and he couldn't adapt to it. Where the fault lies, I have no idea. I do know that in any of today's high-tech fields, and NASCAR would be one of those, you have to relearn your craft on a regular basis. Same-old, same-old just won't cut it in today's world.

Hopefully, the change in crew chief will enable Dale Jr to change his approach to work with the engineering approach of today's CUP builders and crew chiefs. Obviously, just doing what his dad, Dale Earnhardt, did isn't enough to be near the top given today's NASCAR CUP COT paradigm.

Just my observation,
JD