Earnhardt Trudges Through a Trying Season Behind the Wheel

CONCORD, N.C., Oct. 16 -- Dale Earnhardt Jr. hit rock bottom during his last trip to Lowe's Motor Speedway. He struggled with his car, feuded with his crew chief and finished a season-low 40th in one of the most embarrassing weekends of his career.

Team owner Rick Hendrick fired crew chief Tony Eury Jr. three days after that May debacle, and things were supposed to turn around with some fresh leadership at Earnhardt's No. 88 team.

It hasn't happened.

Little has changed, at least in terms of results, in the four-plus months since. Back at Lowe's Motor Speedway for Saturday night's race, Earnhardt is slogging through a 51-race winless streak dating from 2008, his first season with Hendrick Motorsports.

He's 22nd in the standings, has five top 10 finishes, failed to finish five times and hasn't finished higher than 17th in the last six races.

"It's, like, really encouraging one day and the next day it's equally discouraging, and that gets really old," Earnhardt said Friday. "I'm about to the end of my rope on it."

Earnhardt seemed deflated as he spoke candidly about a season he has repeatedly characterized as the worst of his career. He said earlier this season that his struggles and the emotional split with Eury, his cousin, weighed heavily on his large family, and Earnhardt doesn't think he's mentally strong enough to weather another year this bad.

Earnhardt didn't seem very encouraged about the progress of his team -- particularly when teammates Jimmie Johnson, Mark Martin and Jeff Gordon hold three of the top five spots in the standings and are all in contention for the Sprint Cup title.

The three Hendrick cars were predictably stout in Friday's qualifying -- Johnson and Martin swept the front row -- but Earnhardt was 39th and said his team looked "ridiculous." Even worse, he doesn't have any solutions.

"I've been riding it out, but there comes a point where you don't want to ride it out no more. You've just had enough," he said. "It's been so low. The highs have not been very high, and the lows have been terribly low. That's hard to want [to] get back up and try again the next week when you take such a beating. I don't know what else to do."

It's a far cry from just two weeks ago, when Earnhardt seemed upbeat after qualifying second at Kansas. He gave interim crew chief Lance McGrew a strong endorsement for 2010 and thought his team had turned a corner.

But after leading 41 laps at Kansas, a pit road penalty took him out of contention and an engine problem later ended his race early. He was good last week at California, too, but was hit late by Ryan Newman and the contact caused a flat tire. It started a sequence of events that led to a late accident and a 25th-place finish.

"I was really upset," he said quietly. "I was really, really upset."

To the point that Earnhardt no longer even trusts his recommendation that McGrew should stay onboard next season. Hendrick said at Kansas that his plan has always been to discuss next season after this weekend at Charlotte, and Earnhardt doesn't have much confidence in his suggestions right now.

"I don't have the credentials to make the call, you know?" Earnhardt said. "If I told you I wanted to be with Lance next year, I wouldn't be telling that out of my knowledge of expertise and talent. I'd be telling you, because it's fun hanging out with him.

"I don't think I'm the guy to leave that decision up to because I wouldn't make the right one. Or there's probably better people to make it, especially in the organization. There's a lot of smart people around there. "