Dale Earnhardt Jr.: Is This Hendrick Motorsports Project in Trouble?

The slippery slope of the NASCAR points system requires a lot of traction to make the Chase and Dale Earnhardt Jr. appears precariously close to sliding out of the top 10 as he remains winless.

Junior Nation was cheering as the driver of the Amp Energy/National Guard No. 88 made his way to third in points, but now he sits eighth.

Lady Luck has not been especially kind to Junior lately. Some of the causes for his finishes of 21st at Michigan, 41st at Sonoma, 19th at Daytona and 30th at Kentucky were not all his fault.

Earnhardt Jr. looked to be locked into a top 10 at Michigan when his teammate, Mark Martin, drove him into the fence for some unknown reason that resulted in a blown tire.

At Kentucky, there were 13 laps remaining and though he had not been in contention with a mid-pack run, he goes to the pits.

Like other drivers he took right side tires only, then immediately blows a left front upon his return to the track.

The promising start of this Hendrick Motorsports project under the guidance of his crew chief, Steve Letarte, looked to be a thing of beauty.

The driver and the team leader were at last in sync with Letarte becoming Dale Jr.'s biggest cheerleader and it was working as planned.

After the dismal run by the No. 88 team at the inaugural Quaker State 400, Junior may have summed up a problem that has become evident and if not fixed immediately will put the team out of the Chase.

In a post-race interview with a pit reporter from TNT television, Junior stated, "We just didn't have a real good car. We ran one line over and over, so slow all night, we couldn't take chances on track position."

In summary, he added, "It was real disappointing." The look on his face said it all and the smiles with near giddiness that we saw at races earlier in the season were long gone.

Unloading a car that is not good in practice and certainly can't qualify near the front seems to be an ongoing problem.

Letarte was usually able to make adjustments on the car and get it competitive even when Dale Jr. had to start near mid-pack or worse.

Earnhardt Jr. is hardly alone at Hendrick Motorsports with not coming out of the gate strong when they unload the cars. With all the available information, often they still must massage the cars for speed.

It has been seen with the cars driven by his teammates as well, but Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon lead him in the point standings and the No. 48 team has one win while Gordon has two.

Perhaps it is time for Earnhardt Jr. to show some aggressiveness that we know he has somewhere deep inside. He has shown it before.

How much good did his loyalty to Johnson provide in the tandem racing at Daytona for the Coke Zero 400?

They languished at the back until Johnson left him for the pits, then Junior started to race even though it was too late.

Now there are eight chances left for the drivers who will make the Chase this year. Wins are mandatory and Junior currently is zero on that count.

Watkins Glen and the Brickyard are probably going to be most problematic for the No. 88 team. Dale Jr. has 10 top-10 finishes at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, six of which were top five.

Junior is a great history buff who has a lot of respect for Indianapolis Motor Speedway and certainly a win at that historic track would mean a lot, but wanting a win is hardly enough.

He has wins at Michigan, Bristol, Atlanta and Richmond, but those finishes were not with the COT except at Michigan which was his last win in 2008. That was 111 races ago.

A contract extension for probably a five-year period is quietly being negotiated indirectly. His current contract runs through 2012.

All the pieces are in place for Earnhardt Jr., Letarte and the team that is housed under the same roof as five-time Cup champ Johnson and his crew chief extraordinaire, Chad Knaus.

There is still time for a hat trick by this team, but they need to turn things around quickly. Letarte needs to unload a fast car at Loudon this weekend and regain the momentum they had.

It is time for Junior to put his happy face back on, turn his cap backwards and get with the program. If he remains disappointed it will feed through to the team and his slide will continue.

Perhaps there have just been minor setbacks for this Hendrick Motorsports project and they are really in much better shape than the last few starts and finishes have shown.

With only eight races left until the Chase, we won't have to wait long to find out.