It’s beginning to look like the 2013 season is following a familiar pattern for NASCAR’s most popular driver, Dale Earnhardt Jr., who has never won a Cup title and had his best points finish — third place — 10 years ago.
This season, like others in the past, started off with great promise. Earnhardt was second in the points stanings after the season-opening Daytona 500 and on top after the third race at Auto Club Speedway in California. He was fifth as late as the 21st race of the year at Pocono Raceway, but has been backsliding since.
“We started the year out strong,” Earnhardt said on NASCAR’s weekly teleconference. “I mean, if we could have beaten Carl Edwards out in that last pit stop in Phoenix, we thought we could have won that race. We had a string of good finishes and we were leading the points in the first five or six races of the year. I feel like we really applied ourselves and adapted to the new car pretty quickly.
“Now that everybody else has sort of caught up and even surged ahead in some areas, you’re seeing Matt [Kenseth] have an awesome year.”
Earnhardt finished the regular season eighth in the standings, which earned him a Chase berth. But he blew an engine in the Chase opener at Chicagoland Speedway and dropped to 13th. His sixth-place finish on Sunday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway moved him up two spots, but he’s still 62 points behind leader Kenseth, who has won both Chase races to date.
Earnhardt said that because he’s so far behind Kenseth, he’s focusing on winning a race or two before season’s end.
He’s winless so far this year and has won just two races since 2006.
“Our [championship] chances aren’t looking that great because the guys ahead of us are winning races,” Earnhardt said. “If we can win a couple races, no matter what happens in the championship, that will improve the results of our season and give us a lot to be happy about.”
Musical sponsors: The trend in NASCAR these days seems to be for sponsors to follow drivers when they change teams.
This week it was announced that Jimmy John’s, the gourmet sandwich maker, is moving to Stewart-Haas Racing next season from Richard Childress Racing, where it has been backing Kevin Harvick. Harvick will join Stewart-Haas next year. The announcement comes after another of Harvick’s current sponsors, Budweiser, also announced that it would be moving with Harvick.
Jimmy John’s will be the primary sponsor of Harvick’s No. 4 Chevrolet for 12 races, including the Brickyard 400, and will be a major associate sponsor in the remaining races. The company also will be an associate sponsor of Tony Stewart’s No. 14 Chevrolet. Budweiser is set to sponsor Harvick for 20 races.
Quicken Loans, which has been sponsoring Ryan Newman at Stewart-Haas, announced this week that it’s moving with Newman to Richard Childress Racing next season, where it will back him as primary sponsor for 12 races and as an associate for the rest of the season.
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