Dale Jr. is Underrated

There seems to be an influx of Jr haters lately.

He's is having a rough season being 25th in points with 1 top five and 3 top tens.

His season is pretty much done for and he would be lucky if he finished 20th in points.

But he is a great driver and I have come to the conclusion the the most popular driver in the sport is underrated.

His car control for one thing goes unnoticed.

How many times has he had a loose car this season? Lowe's was a great example, that was probably one of the worst handling cars I have ever seen, yet he never spun once. Car control takes talent and imo he is top 5 in that category.

Look at some of Jr’s stats:

He has 18 career wins which puts him 6th after Johnson, Gordon, Martin, Stewart and Kurt Busch.
He has 87 career top fives which puts 7th behind Martin, Gordon, Stewart, Johnson, and Kenseth.
He has led 6,743 laps in his career.

The man has some pretty elite numbers in his career.
His point finishes aren’t too shabby either.

He has finished 16th, 8th, 11th, 3rd, 5th, 19th, 5th, 16th, and 12th in points. That is three top five point finishes, five top ten point finishes, and six top 15 point finishes.

In the right situation there is no doubt that Dale Earnhardt Jr. can win multiple races and contend for championships in the Cup Series. He is after all a 2 time Nationwide champion both coming in his first two full season in Nationwide beating out Matt Kenseth both seasons.

Jr. is just in a tough spot in his career. Since 2007, his career hasn’t gone the way he would exactly like it. Since 2006, he has only one win and since 2005 has three wins. He switched teams hoping to improve, but it has only gotten worse.

Things happen sometimes things aren’t as good as you would have hoped. He isn’t the only driver that this has happened to.

Good luck to Jr. for the rest of the season. Keep up the good spirits and here’s to a better 2010.