Dale Earnhardt Jr. top list of biggest disapppointments for 2010

Many of the top stars we expected to shine in 2010 came through in a big way – Jimmie Johnson, Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch. But some failed to produce the same results they did in 2009, or the results that were expected based on their records and history or the history of their respective teams. Here's a look at the most disappointing drivers in 2010:

Dale Earnhardt Jr. Opens Up About Team Shake-Up and His Popularity

LAS VEGAS -- The only suspense in Thursday's announcement of NASCAR's 2010 Most Popular Driver Award rested with the winner. For the eighth consecutive year, Dale Earnhardt Jr. claimed the honor -- tops among the 1.5 million fan votes -- once again proving his popularity is soaring even if his on-track efforts have fallen flat.

"Oh yeah, I was surprised,'' Earnhardt claimed moments after accepting the award during NASCAR Champion's Week. "You just never know. There's the performance factor we've suffered from on the race track, there's the new guys coming into the sport all the time. You never take it for granted.''

The same could be said for winning.

Earnhardt hasn't won a race in nearly three seasons and hasn't even been consistently competitive in the No. 88 National Guard-Amp Energy Chevrolet, while his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jimmie Johnson will be crowned champion for the fifth consecutive year in Friday night's lavish NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Awards Banquet at the Wynn Las Vegas.

The juxtaposition isn't lost on the third-generation driver, son of the late seven-time champion, Dale Earnhardt. The 2004 Daytona 500 champ and 18-race winner is hoping a three-way crew chief swap at Hendrick will infuse new life into his career. And it can't happen soon enough.

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Dale Earnhardt Jr. Not the Only Reason for Shakeup, Rick Hendrick Says

Although Dale Earnhardt Jr., winner of 18 career Sprint Cup races, has now stretched his winless streak at Hendrick Motorsports to 101 races, that's only part of the reason for the massive shakeup announced Tuesday, team owner Rick Hendrick said Wednesday.

"This was not a Dale Earnhardt... this was not a move that we made -- this major a move -- because of Dale or his situation," Hendrick said Wednesday in a teleconference. "I'm excited about making all four teams better. We need to be better across the board. It was a move to make all four better."

It's hard to think that a racing juggernaut like Hendrick Motorsports, with five straight Sprint Cup championships in the history books and gunning for six in a row next year, might be going downhill.

But Hendrick said as much Wednesday in describing why he shuffled the drivers and crew chiefs among three of his teams and switched driver partners in the twin pairing arrangement he has for the four teams at the organization's sprawling Concord, N.C. complex.

"I think we just kind of got complacent and other teams were getting stronger and stronger, and we were just not where we needed to be," Hendrick said. "We just were off this year. The 48 was off. And we needed to make a lot of things better.

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Dale Earnhardt Jr. Sees a Glimmer of Racing Sunlight

MARTINSVILLE, Va. -- The legions of fans of Junior Nation rose as one on lap 285 of the Tums Fast Relief 500 at Martinsville Speedway Sunday, waving the little green flags passed out by the race sponsor and screaming their lungs out against the din of the more than three dozen race cars circling the half-mile track here.

Their man, Dale Earnhardt Jr., had clawed his way to the front and taken the lead from Jeff Gordon during a green flag run at the midpoint of the NASCAR Sprint Cup race.

And he led 90 of the next 93 laps -- more than his total for the entire year before Sunday's race. Coming into Martinsville -- where Earnhardt has never won -- he had led a total of 71 laps in five races.

But after more than doubling his laps led total Sunday, Earnhardt was only partially satisfied. He faded during the long green flag run over the final 98 laps and finished seventh.

"Well, this isn't quite good enough," Earnhardt said. "We have to run way better than this. I can come in here and get a top-10 unless we have a major, major issue in the setup."

Dale Earnhardt Jr. Sees a Glimmer of Racing Sunlight originally appeared on Motorsports FanHouse on Sun, 24 Oct 2010 19:10:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

 

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