Daytona 500 2012: Dale Earnhardt Jr. Must Adapt to Remain Relevant in NASCAR

Not even having the most famous name in auto racing can assure Dale Earnhardt Jr. a spot in NASCAR's exclusive inner circle.

Certainly not with amidst his current slump, which has seen Junior go 129 consecutive races without a victory.

A win at the Daytona 500—on a track that's seen him succeed to the tune of two victories, eight top-fives and 13 top-10s—would go a long way toward putting Earnhardt Jr. back on the map of stock car racing. There's no bigger event in NASCAR than the Daytona 500, no more coveted sensation than a visit to Victory Lane at the conclusion of the Great American Race.

To do that, he'll have to show a greater willingness and ability to adapt to the newer styles or racing, namely tandem racing that's become so popular at the superspeedways. Earnhardt's previous detestation of the strategy has often left him looking like an old curmudgeon, a driver who was supposed to be great but who's seen the sport pass him by.

Though, with the way Earnhardt's talking about it now, it sounds as if he may finally be ready to rejoin the sport's elite. As he told the Associated Press:

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"I do feel like I have a better shot at winning in this current style of racing. I do feel more confident than I did coming down here and tandem drafting. I never felt really great about that. It is a completely different style of racing and it's not what I enjoyed.

"I definitely feel better about this."

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He certainly should feel better about it. Now that the rules have been tweaked to better favor pack racing (Junior's preferred style), Earnhardt should find the track at Daytona International Speedway a bit more inviting.

Not only as a place to earn a long-awaited victory on Sunday, but also as a re-launching pad for his stock-car-racing career going forward.

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