Top 35 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup drivers: No. 25 - Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Hendrick Motorsports' Dale Earnhardt Jr. struggled considerably during the 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season. // LaDon George, NASCAR Scene
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Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s NASCAR Sprint Cup season was one of the biggest surprises of 2009, and for his legions of fans, it was one of the biggest letdowns.
Considered a preseason favorite to make the Chase For The Sprint Cup in his second season with Hendrick Motorsports, Earnhardt Jr. stumbled his way through a frustrating campaign that provoked many questions but provided few answers.
In addition to going winless for only the second time in his 10 Cup seasons, NASCAR’s most popular driver finished a career-worst 25th in the standings and never made any real headway toward making the Chase.
The decision by team owner Rick Hendrick to replace crew chief Tony Eury Jr. with Lance McGrew after a miserable 40th-place outing at Charlotte in May did little to remedy Earnhardt Jr.’s woes.
The Kannapolis, N.C., native finished out the season with two top-fives and five top-10s but only two of those top-10s came in his 24 starts with McGrew. Illuminating Earnhardt Jr.’s struggles was the success of his three Hendrick teammates, who finished one-two-three in the final standings with Jimmie Johnson winning a record-setting fourth straight title.
Earnhardt Jr.’s previous worst points finish was 19th in his rookie year of 2000, but he won twice that season while competing for Dale Earnhardt Inc. Earnhardt Jr. netted one win and qualified for the Chase in 2008, his first year with Hendrick after leaving DEI, on the way to a 12th-place points finish.
The 35-year-old collected $4,097,189 in race earnings in 2009.
During the offseason, SceneDaily is taking a look at the top 35 in 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup driver points. Here’s how Earnhardt Jr.’s season unfolded:
By the numbers: Earnhardt Jr. finished a season-best second at Talladega in April and scored his other top-five – a third-place finish – at Michigan in August, in addition to three more top-10s. He led 146 laps and registered five DNFs. His average starting position was 22.2, while his average finishing position was 23.2. Earnhardt Jr. completed 96.7 percent of all laps logged.
Season highlights: Earnhardt Jr.’s runnerup finish at Talladega in April and third-place finish at Michigan in August were the high points of his season. His other top-10s came at Las Vegas (10th) in March, Martinsville (eighth) in March and Bristol (ninth) in August.
Key setbacks: Earnhardt Jr.’s season started poorly with a 27th-place finish in the Daytona 500, a race in which he endured more than one pit-road miscue and triggered a multicar accident that collected several frontrunners. A blown engine in the next week’s race at Auto Club Speedway left Earnhardt Jr. with a 39th-place finish, and he never completely gained traction after his early setbacks. He finished in the top 15 just once over the final 12 races.
Newsworthy moments: The move by team owner Rick Hendrick to replace Earnhardt Jr.’s crew chief, his cousin Tony Eury Jr., with Lance McGrew after 12 races was easily the most publicized shakeup of the season. The team then announced in late October that McGrew would shed the “interim” tag on his crew-chief title and return as the full-time crew chief for Earnhardt Jr. in 2010.
In his words: “Hopefully, next year will be better. I want to keep racing because I think we need more racing. We’re not good as a team yet. We need to race more. We don’t need to say, ‘All right, let’s get this year over with and get ready for next year.’ ... We have to try during the offseason to fix what we can without being able to go to the race track and seeing if that’s working. Hopefully, when we show up at Daytona, we’ve made the right calls.”
