Dale Earnhardt Jr. versus Kyle Busch? Junior better get up on the wheel...Kyle is leaving him in the dust

  
   Dale Earnhardt Jr. -- gets a vote of confidence from car owner Rick Hendrick...and a timetable to produce (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)
  

   By Mike Mulhern
   mikemulhern.net

   MARTINSVILLE, Va.
   Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s decided lack of success in his time at Rick Hendrick's, since leaving Teresa Earnhardt's DEI, has become a focal point of attention…not only because of the Earnhardt name and legacy, and not only because of Hendrick's many NASCAR championships, but also because the guy Hendrick fired in order to sign Earnhardt – Kyle Busch – has become the hottest star in NASCAR.
  And Earnhardt's slump -- well, maybe it's just a long run of bad luck -- certainly isn't helping NASCAR's still sluggish TV ratings: Sunday's Bristol race pulled only a 4.5 on Fox, according to Nielsen. That's down almost 20 percent from last spring's 5.5 rating for Bristol. For the season Fox's NASCAR broadcasts are off more than 10 percent from 2008.
  Not only that, but the younger of the Busch brothers is even drawing comparison with the late Dale Earnhardt.
   So the question obviously isn't Hendrick's equipment, since Jimmie Johnson is going for his fourth straight Sprint Cup title this season, but rather Earnhardt and long-time crew chief Tony Eury Jr.
   But then Earnhardt Jr. should have recognized what he was in for when he picked Hendrick over Richard Childress when facing the move from DEI.
   The issue lately has been framed this way – should Hendrick step in and replace Eury with another crew chief?
   However the real issue perhaps should be framed this way: Just how good a driver, really, is Dale Earnhardt Jr.? Is he up to the level of Johnson and Jeff Gordon?
   Ouch!
   That may be a tough question for Junior Nation to face. But now, well into his time with Hendrick and that all-star cast, and into his 10th season on the Cup tour, the truth is Earnhardt's last solid tour victory was in the spring of 2006 at Richmond. That's nearly three years ago.
    Hendrick insists he's focused on making the Earnhardt-Eury team a winner, and a championship contender….even though Earnhardt's slow start this season has him 276 points behind tour leader Jeff Gordon. Earnhardt's best finish was a 10th at Vegas – which puts pressure on him to do well next week at Texas, where he won his first tour event, in 2000.
   Kyle Busch has led more laps this season, 576, than anyone else, twice as many as the next man, Jimmie Johnson. Earnhardt? He's led just one lap.
    Hendrick?
   "We have been looking at that team…trying to make sure we are doing everything we can and we have the right chemistry, the right people and are performing to our potential," Hendrick says. "We had a sit-down back (earlier this year), and -- as I do with all of the teams -- and talked about ways and things we can do better. 
   "The commitment from the guys on that team is there. 
   "I want to draw a parallel between Jeff's team last year, and where they were -- everybody was saying 'Hey, you need to replace Stevie (Letarte, crew chief),' or 'You need to do something, because they are just not running.'  
   "Last year at this time, Dale's team was the best team we had; they were the ones leading the charge. Then we fell off toward about the chase (last fall). Things just didn't seem to work.  
   "But I can tell you we have looked at everything. Dale Junior is working out, he has changed his eating habits. We have all the folks that know what to do here and focused on that team.
    "The good news is we are all trying.
   "I'm not sure we will see the results this week, but we have put all the effort we have against it. And right now Tony Junior is our guy.  
   "I couldn't change anything. 
    "We are not in left-field. The car (at Bristol) I think was the fastest in one of the practices; he slipped in qualifying.
    "There is a lot of pressure on him because of who he is. There's a lot of pressure on me because of him being here. And that's all going to make us work harder.
    "I am 100 percent behind this group; I have no intention of making any changes. 
    "I have all intentions of making it better. 
    "And these guys are working their butts off….No different than Stevie and Jeff did.
    "I've got to believe in the next few weeks we are going to see some real success out of that crowd.
    "You can shuffle the deck and start all over. But when you see little things -- a little tenth here, a tenth there -- with the people in the team, with the preparation, with the plan….we are putting a lot of effort against it. And I think it's going to pay us some huge dividends."
    It better. And soon.

     Richard Petty (R) listens while Rick Hendrick talks. (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)