Dale Earnhardt Jr. Needs a Bad Boy Reputation

Short-track racing is a contact sport in NASCAR. It was well demonstrated at Martinsville Speedway with the sport's most popular driver, Dale Earnhardt Jr., giving some hard hits to the competition.

It was obvious Junior was having a good time with his old school driving techniques at NASCAR's oldest and shortest track.

After eight laps, the driver of the Diet Mountain Dew No. 88 Chevy was making an apology to Kurt Busch and company after he got up on the curb and sailed into the No. 22 car, causing it to spin.

Earnhardt continued his aggressive short-track moves throughout the race and was involved in other incidents including one that proved detrimental to Brad Keselowski's finishing position.

It is no secret that this Hendrick Motorsports driver would be content with all 36 races in the NASCAR Sprint Cup series being on relatively short tracks as opposed to the 1.5-mile and road-course tracks.

For Earnhardt fans, it should have been a breath of fresh air to see him making moves and driving hard with a "have at it" attitude.

His performance was certainly more refreshing than watching the snoozefest at Talladega, where he and his teammate, Jimmie Johnson, languished in the back until it was too late to race.

Certainly the Junior naysayers will say he was just driving wild, caused problems for other Chase contenders and still didn't win after 126 consecutive races.

Perhaps HMS needs to capture what some may call reckless abandon and take it to the remaining tracks. Junior was showing some moves we might have seen from his legendary father.

Despite what his detractors may think, if Earnhardt has a fast car he will race as a happy, competitive driver.

It was evident Dale Jr. was enjoying his adventures at Martinsville when he radioed his crew chief, Steve Letarte, with a comment broadcast on ESPN during the race.

Earnhardt said, "If we race more short tracks, I might be considered a dirty driver. I'd have me a reputation."

We need to see the fire that burns in Earnhardt's belly motivate him to be more aggressive.

If the sport's eight-time winner of the Most Popular Driver award needs to become a bit more of a bad boy in NASCAR, then so be it. Junior Nation will still be cheering as long as he finishes well.

His father was no angel on the track and made a lot of enemies along the way to his seven Winston Cup titles.

Hendrick Motorsports has the reputation of running a stable of clean drivers. For the most part they say the right things and are marketing savvy except for perhaps one driver.

Earnhardt Jr. is his own man and sometimes says things that aren't "politically correct" so far as the expectations of HMS drivers.

The driver of the No. 88 is a very respectful person in many ways and he certainly has respect for drivers who race him clean.

Even though Junior remains ninth in the point standings with absolutely no chance of contending for this year's title, it's not too late to work on that reputation of which he spoke.

Junior Nation and NASCAR is ready for him to bring it, and just maybe a win will come with it.