SEASON PREVIEW

DALE EARNHARDT JR

By: Ashley M.

OVERVIEW

2005 was a mixed season for Jr. Some good finishes mixed in with bad luck and bad cars give you his season. He had his worst pts finish ever (19th) and the season highlight was his win @ Chicagoland in July with Steve Hmiel.
Jr's best pts finish ever in the Cup Series came in 2003 with a 3rd and he has finished in the top 10 in pts for a total of 3 times with a 4th in 2004 & a 8th in 2001. He career total of wins is now 15 and he is a 2-time Busch Series champion (1998 & 1999).
 

RESTRICTOR PLATES

For Jr, his restrictor plate program was off considering he's the prince of the restrictor plates. His finishes weren't all due to him through, espically the 40th place finish at Talladega. That was due to being involved in the big one which I can't blame him for either because he didn't cause it nor was he running bad. He was actually running 4th when it happened on lap 20. So basically all Jr has to work on is getting his plate program back where it was which is to stay out of trouble.

SHORT TRACK

Jr finished all six of his short track races in the top 20 with a top finish of 4th. Now all he needs to do is try to get that forth every short track and his short track end of the stick is fixed.

ROAD COURSES

Both road courses he had wrecks that took him out of contension so basically his 2006 road course deal is not to get involved in any wrecks. Hey, the old saying goes "stay on the track all day without hitting a wall or another car and you'll get a top 15 finish". Well that top 15 would work for me there.

FLAT TRACKS

His flat track program has flaws. It's called wrecks and a bad car for the final race of the year. Yet when he had a good car and stayed out of trouble, there was a 3rd (Phoenix) and a 14th (Pocono). Again, all he needs to do is stay out of trouble and possibly improve a bit on both, getting back on top of his Phoenix game, and we have a front running team. NEXT!

COOKIE CUTTERS

His cookie cutter program is completely wacky but I'm going to do a curtain way to prove a pt. I'm seperating the race to the chase and the chase due to the fact that at the beginning of the chase, he was reunited with old crew cheif/cousin Tony Eury Jr.
Before the chase, he had a win at Chicago plus some top 10s mixed in there with a bunch of bad finishes due to crappy cars and wrecks.
When the chase started and the reuniting took place, he had a ton of good cars and had major chances to win many races yet just couldn't get the luck. Dover->brake problem after first pit stop well running in the top 10 and Charlotte->had the best car but cut down a tire on lap 62 and hit the wall.
So all Junebug needs is luck and then look out.

OVERVIEW

So at the end of this, we have determinded his goals. One is to stay out of trouble since that's what caused most of his issues in 2005. Second is never leave your cousin ever again. Why? Well compare the time without him and the time with him. The finishes may not show what I mean but if you watched each race and saw how good he was running before the problems, then you would see what I mean. Third is get rid of the bad luck. That is your worst enemy and last but not least, improve on the tracks that aren't working out (one being Homestead). So if all this comes together in 2006, he'll be back running at the top kicking @$$ once again.

(C)Ashley M, Dec. 2nd 2005
(R)The NASCAR Palace, Dec. 2nd 2005