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NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
CUP: Earnhardt All Access
Dale Earnhardt Jr. is enjoying a much-improved season over the past two...
Tom Jensen  |  Posted August 11, 2011   Charlotte, NC
It’s been a roller-coaster ride of a season for Dale Earnhardt Jr. and the No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports team.

Earnhardt, who will be the featured guest on tonight’s NASCAR Race Hub at 7 p.m. ET on SPEED, is on track to have his best season since joining Hendrick Motorsports in 2008.

Although Earnhardt struggled during the middle of the summer, he is currently 10th in the NASCAR Sprint Cup points standings, with five races to go in the Sprint Cup regular season.

That’s quite an improvement from 2010, when he finished 21st in points and 2009 when he was 25th. In a lengthy and exclusive interview with Steve Byrnes which will air tonight, Earnhardt dismissed the notion that he’s having a comeback season.

“I just think that ideology of ‘I’m back’ or ‘This guy’s back’ is so hokey,” said Earnhardt. “You show up, you do a job, you either do it great that day or you don’t. Some days I’m going to run well and some days I’m not. I know that they (the media) got to ask those questions, and they got to write the column, and they got to spin the story up. I’ve been at it a long time. They should have an idea of what I am, as far as the caliber of race car driver I am.”

Earnhardt said he has become circumspect about what he says the longer his career goes on.

“I feel pretty normal and I feel like I have pretty normal conversations with people,” he said. “I don’t really see the celebrity buzz. And I feel like when people start asking me questions, I get a little more guarded as the interview goes because I get nervous about being too open.”

And he’s toned down his lifestyle, too.

“I used to party all the time,” he said. “I still like to party. I still like to get with my friends and try to pull an all-nighter. I still like to do that. But I think back to five, 10 years ago, how we did it all the time, and I just can’t imagine it. I have no real interest in being married. I’d like to have kids one day, but that’s not something I’ve got planned out.”

This weekend at Watkins Glen will be a critical test for Earnhardt. He comes into the race with a narrow 23-point lead over 11th-place Denny Hamlin, but in his last five Watkins Glen starts, Earnhardt has finished 26th, 39th, 22nd, 42nd and 18th.

As for how his performance is during any given race, Earnhardt said that mostly depends on how fast his No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet is running at that moment.

“I don’t know if everyone is going to agree with this, but for the most part, the car is the key factor,” said Earnhardt. “If a guy’s not running well, in most cases, it’s the car. The deciding factor is the equipment you’re driving.”

Tom Jensen is the Editor in Chief of SPEED.com, Senior NASCAR Editor at RACER and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. You can follow him online at twitter.com/tomjensen100.
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