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NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
CUP: Earnhardt Focusing On 2010
Dale Earnhardt Jr. admitted Friday that making the Chase for the Sprint Cup this year will be almost impossible...
Tom Jensen  |  Posted July 04, 2009   Daytona Beach, FL
With nine races left until the Chase field is set, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. ranks 19th in points and is 285 points out the final 12th position in the Chase. (Photo: LAT Photographic)
While Dale Earnhardt Jr. said he still hopes to qualify for the Chase for the Sprint Cup this season, realistically that’s going to be extremely difficult. And so the driver of the No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet Impala SS is already looking towards 2010.

With nine races left until the Chase field is set, Earnhardt ranks 19th in points and is 285 points out of 12th, the final position in the Chase. Earnhardt has not finished in the top 10 in eight consecutive races and has only one top five and three top 10s in 17 starts this season.

And even though the third-generation driver will be one of the favorites going into tonight’s Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway, as far making the Chase, it’s likely not going to happen.

“We have quite a ways to go to be able to make the Chase,” Earnhardt said Friday at DIS. “It's going to be a real challenge for us to make the Chase. We're still mathematically in it but we're not trying to catch just one guy that we're 200 and some points behind, we're trying to catch four or five guys. And it's unrealistic to expect all them guys to have enough trouble. And for us to top-10 'em to death ain't gonna get it done.”

In the five races since Earnhardt’s cousin Tony Eury Jr. was replaced as crew chief, Earnhardt said he’s seen progress. But more needs to happen under new crew chief Lance McGrew and his Hendrick minions to improve performance.

“We've got to run better and even though we have improved, it seems we still need to get better and be able to compete,” said Earnhardt. “To be able to drive up into the top three last week was a lot of fun. But we need to be able to stay there once we get there.”

And that has Earnhardt already thinking about next year.

“Making the Chase is the goal, but at the end of the year when you're done racing at Homestead and you've run the last lap and you get out of the car, what kind of feeling do you want to have?” he said. “The one I want to have is that we've fixed it. We've got something that we can feel good about and work on and get all our stuff ready for next year and feel like we can go in and get the job done. Right now, that's not how we feel as a team. We've got a little bit more to go. We've got to get a little bit better so at the end of the year we want to feel like we are. We want to have some wins and some consistency and end the year going, ‘All right, can't wait 'til next year. This is going to be a good deal.’ So we're working really hard.”

One thing apparently not likely for next season is for Earnhardt to move his own JR Motorsports NASCAR Nationwide Series team up to the Sprint Cup level.

“Going into the Cup Series is going to be quite a challenge for anybody to find the kind of financial support that you need,” said Earnhardt. “The Nationwide Series is still as exciting to me as it was when we first got into it. … I enjoy kind of bringing people in and having a part in getting them there. So that's what's exciting about the series for me as an owner. It's easier to secure financial support for that series when you're talking about the entire sum of money that it takes to compete.”

Brad Keselowski, JR Motorsports’ full-time Nationwide Series driver, likely will move to Cup with another team next year, perhaps Stewart-Haas Racing.

Asked if he expected Keselowski to drive for him next year, Earnhardt said, “No, unless you know something I don't. For right now, the way I see it is that Brad has a ton of opportunities and doors are all wide open for him.”

Tom Jensen is the Editor in Chief for SPEEDtv.com, the former Executive Editor of NASCAR Scene and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. He is the author of “Cheating: The Bad Things Good NASCAR Nextel Cup Racers Do In Pursuit of SPEED,” and has appeared on television and radio shows to discuss NASCAR racing. Jensen is the past President of the National Motorsports Press Association. Jensen is the 1997 National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year and has won numerous national and state awards for news reporting, columns and feature writing. The Answer Man is back at SPEEDtv.com. Tom Jensen answers your questions during every race week and looks forward to hearing from you - please e-mail it to

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