Did Dale Earnhardt Jr. Just Lose His Last, Best Shot at NASCAR Sprint Cup Title?

Somewhat lost in the aftermath of NASCAR’s race-ending mess at Talladega last Sunday was the relevant and important question it raised but left unanswered.

Did Dale Earnhardt Jr. just lose out on his best remaining shot at winning a Sprint Cup Series championship?

Earnhardt Jr. was scored second in Sunday’s CampingWorld.com 500 at NASCAR’s most treacherous track when the caution flag flew shortly after he charged forward from the inside of the front row on a final green-white-checkered restart. Earnhardt Jr. was so close to leader Joey Logano when the caution froze the field that it took NASCAR officials several minutes of reviewing videotape before confidently declaring Logano the winner.

As a result, Earnhardt Jr. was one of four drivers eliminated on the day from the 2015 Chase for the Sprint Cup. His playoffs are over.

As is nearly always the case, Earnhardt Jr. handled this surely crushing disappointment with class.

“I felt like, per the rule book, it sorted out and I finished second,” he said in the media center after the race. “I'm okay with that. We could argue they could have waited another 100 feet to throw the caution, but they didn't have to. They threw it when they needed to. I'm fine with that.”

Although absolutely the correct call under NASCAR’s current set of convoluted, oft-confusing rules, it was not a popular decision with the pro-Dale ‘Dega crowd. Many of them greeted it by heaving beer cans and other refuse on the 2.66-mile track even as Logano proceeded with his celebratory burnout.

Perhaps Junior Nation sensed a lost opportunity of possibly historic proportions on the part of their hero.

At 41, the sobering reality is that Junior is no youngster.

As the scrutinized son of the legendary and late Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt, who won a record-tying seven Cup championships before passing away in an accident on the final lap of the 2001 Daytona 500, Earnhardt Jr. for years seemed perpetually young.

When Junior won back-to-back championships in 1998 and 1999 in the then-Busch Series, NASCAR’s equivalent to Triple-A baseball, surely he was poised to step up to the Cup Series and follow right in his father’s championship footsteps. Those prevailing thoughts only intensified when Earnhardt Jr. won the sport’s All-Star Race at Charlotte Motor Speedway as a rookie in 2000.

But that was a long 15 years ago now.

Earnhardt Jr. was then driving for Dale Earnhardt Inc. and made a highly publicized, highly anticipated jump to Hendrick Motorsports to begin driving the No. 88 Chevy in 2008. Still , the titles did not follow. Nor, for a long time, did many race wins.

But after going through a couple of notable dry spells, it’s fair to say that Junior’s career experienced a resurgence in the right direction beginning last season when he won four races in his final season with crew chief Steve Letarte.

It has continued this year under first-year crew chief Greg Ives, who stepped into the role after Letarte moved onto the NBC broadcast booth.

It is worth noting that Earnhardt Jr. called Sunday’s race their finest work together this season. He said so despite the fact that they earlier had won two races, including the season’s earlier race at Talladega.

“I’m just real happy with how we ran (Sunday),” Earnhardt said. “I'm more proud of the drive I had (Sunday) than the two wins this year. The two wins came a lot easier than this second place did. We got shuffled out (from the lead pack of cars). I didn't know if we could get back up there.”

Yet they did. Ives and the determined No. 88 pit crew rebounded from some earlier problems with a loose wheel, and their driver, knowing full well what was on the line, arguably drove one of the best last 30-lap stretches of his career to get back to the front and challenge for the victory.

Butch Dill/Associated Press

Junior knew he had to win to keep his title hopes alive. And although he’s excited about the possibilities of next season, there also seemed to be a sense of urgency about winning this race and surviving in this Chase because, at 41, he knows he no longer can take anything for granted.

Perhaps that is why he also said this after Sunday’s race was over: “I'm glad this weekend's over with. I felt like crap all weekend. Just been real nervous, feeling sick to my stomach.I just wanted to go out there, whatever happened, and put forth a good account of myself, my team. I'm real proud of what we did.”

He did. They did. In spite of the defeat, it was a day worth remembering.

Ross D. Franklin/Associated Press

Meanwhile, Hendrick teammate Jeff Gordon, 44, is retiring at the end of this season. Tony Stewart already has announced he will retire at the end of next season at age 45.

Stewart is the only driver in the last 15 years to win a title after turning 40, and he did it in 2011 six months after celebrating his 40th birthday. Only four drivers over 40 have done it in the last 31 years, including the elder Earnhardt, who did it three times but in a different time, a different era.

Earnhardt Jr. has acknowledged that he can’t drive forever and he knows the day is coming, sooner rather than later, when he will need to make the same sort of announcement recently made by Gordon and Stewart.

That means time is running out on his championship hopes.

And that’s what made the gut-wrenching way he was eliminated from the Chase at Talladega so infuriating to so many from Junior Nation. It may have put an end to his last, best title shot.

Unless otherwise noted, all information was obtained firsthand.

Joe Menzer has written six books, including two about NASCAR, and now writes about it and other sports for Bleacher Report as well as assisting in coverage of NASCAR for FoxSports.com as a Digital Content Producer. Follow him on Twitter @OneMenz.