Earnhardt Jr. knew it was only a matter of time until he won again

Dale Earnhardt Jr. never wondered if he would return to victory lane in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. In his first season with Hendrick Motorsports, and sitting third in the standings for seven consecutive weeks, he believed in his team's potential. He knew a win would come. But it sure did seem to be taking awhile for that to happen.

After all, Earnhardt Jr. brought a winless streak with him to Hendrick. So by the time he headed to Michigan, he was nursing a 76-race winless streak. That's a stretch dating back more than two years, to the May 2006 race at Richmond. It's a run that must have been maddening for both Earnhardt Jr. and the legion of fans who have voted him NASCAR's most popular driver in recent years.

But it's not one that he let prey on his mind too much. Especially not after he signed on with Hendrick for this season.

"I never wondered, 'Man, will I never win again?' … If I can have my way, I'll be around here for quite a while, but I'll have good opportunities, driving good race cars for hopefully a good time and more opportunities to win," he said following Sunday's victory in the LifeLock 400 at Michigan International Speedway. "The winless streak didn't frustrate me as much as most people would think, and I was so happy to be where I am and so satisfied with how we've ran to this point that I wasn't that frustrated about not winning. I felt really fortunate to have what I had.

"So as much as I wanted to win, you know, I couldn't get away from just feeling really fortunate and feeling really lucky, and, man, I've got a great team. Look at my cars. They are so awesome, and look how well they are built and look at my guys. They are so dedicated, and everybody believes. I just feel so lucky."

That feeling lasted until Brad Keselowksi won the Nationwide Series race at Nashville in the JR Motorsports car Earnhardt Jr. owns. He watched that team celebrate, spent time with them and discovered something he'd been missing. Something he realized that all of them - his crew chief, Tony Eury Jr., and team owner, Rick Hendrick - had been missing with this team.

"I saw [Keselowski crew chief] Tony [Eury] Sr. and the whole team and then we had our little deal back at the shop on Monday, and then we went and ate lunch together on Wednesday, and it reminded me of the joy that I had forgotten," he said. "I knew winning is going to make me happy, but I forgot really the look on everybody's face and the look I would see once we won on Tony Jr.'s face, Rick's face, my sister, my [public relations] people, all my team. And I started to remember, you know, watching Brad win, I'm like, man, I've got to get back to victory lane, I miss it so bad.

"So I missed that, and that was the motivation for me to get back to victory lane. But the winless streak wasn't bothering me. I was still running good. I was still making a case for my job and having my job, you know what I mean. I still had a good effort and felt like I was doing what I was told. Just a matter of circumstance before we really, you know, put one in victory lane."

Eury Jr. wasn't too concerned, either.

He left Dale Earnhardt Inc. a little early last season, making the move to Hendrick Motorsports to prepare the future Earnhardt Jr. team for this season. They felt as if that gave the group a head start on this season and helped them be prepared entering this year. By the time Earnhardt Jr. completed his run at DEI and joined Hendrick, he had a group ready to go.

Eury Jr. believed that success would follow. So he didn't get too caught up in the search for a win, focusing instead on the team's consistent performances and increased competitiveness.

"The winless streak has not really bothered me because I've seen him lead laps, I've seen what he's capable of doing, and we've run up front, and we've had fast, fast race cars and get caught up in accidents and stuff like that," he said. "So I feel kind of the same way he does. It's like, you love winning and you love seeing that guy's face beside of you just happy that you won, but I'm just as content because I feel the same way he does. It's probably bad that we don't …  We've got a fire in us, but it ain't an inferno. If I can get a hold of my wife and be around people that I really enjoy being around, and I can run top-five every week, I would be happy with that, you know.

"But winning is a bonus, and I just feel very fortunate and lucky. I mean, I've been doing this for 14 years. I've seen a lot of stuff come, and I've seen a lot of stuff go, and you realize right quick that life is short, and you've got to enjoy it while you're here. I can remember times that this was all I breathe, and when you lose certain things in your life, you learn to understand that racing ain't everything."

Hendrick says that he watched the team come close to winning time after time. He saw the disappointment in their faces when they appeared to have the race at Richmond won earlier this year, only to be involved in a crash with a handful of laps remaining. He felt as if this day would come - and that it was getting closer week to week.

Almost immediately after the win, before the relief over not being asked about when a win will come could set in, Earnhardt Jr. found himself facing pressure once more.

With the win out of the way, how important are the races before the 10-race Chase For The NASCAR Sprint Cup - and will he make that 12-driver field to determine the 2008 Cup champion?

"I think I have real potential, and the races specifically in the Chase are good tracks for me," Earnhardt Jr. said. "The summer stretch [has] always been a difficult stretch for me. Tracks like Pocono, hit or miss, the road-course races, getting them in and out of the way. … The summer stretch, we've never really been smoking hot in the last eight years. We'll see, with this equipment and this opportunity that Rick has given us with these motors and these cars, we may turn that around and ... surprise ourselves throughout the summer."

Right now, he's just trying to stay where he is. After failing to make the Chase For The Nextel Cup last season, Earnhardt Jr. is intent on getting back into championship contention this season.

"I guess I'm in a maintain mode," he said. "I'll be real happy if I can just be as consistent as I've been the first part of the season. We go out and we race hard. I've run hard every lap. I'm qualifying every lap. But I'm smart, I don't back my car into the fence, and I don't run into the side of people and spin myself out, and I try not to be around people who do that.

"… I'm working hard to get wins, but I just think we've had the best car sometimes and things have happened, and the rest of the times, we've had a top-five car, and that's what we've got. … I've really anticipated every weekend going to the race track with Hendrick Motorsports equipment, and I've been positive and eager, you know to ... get on the race track and see just how we measure to everyone every weekend, because I go to the race track with what I feel like is the best stuff, motors and cars, and personnel. You can put pressure on yourself and say there's no excuse, but I look at it as an opportunity."

So does Hendrick.

He's been pleasantly surprised by the early success of Earnhardt Jr. and Eury Jr., though he couldn't have expected the duo to be the top team in the Hendrick organization and to have earned one of its two wins 15 races into the season.

"I kind of thought, and I was concerned early on, with the new car and all, that it would take a while to get he and Tony kind of clicking in the groove, and actually he's carried the banner for us," Hendrick said. "They have done an outstanding job, and Tony Eury Jr. fits right in and Jeff [Gordon] and Jimmie [Johnson] and Casey [Mears] work well together. We go test and swap cars around. We were behind when the year started because we took about six new of the old style cars to Homestead just trying to win the championship, and everybody else was ahead of us, and nobody waited for us.

"So we've had to work awful hard here in the last few months to get back to where we were going. But ... I never dreamed that Junior and Tony Eury Jr. would get as well into the company as they have, and we've had a lot of fun. … I'm looking forward to the momentum building, and I'm just real proud of these guys. I think they have got a real shot to win the championship, and we're going to do everything we can to give them the tools to do it."