To say 2010 was a struggle for Dale Earnhardt, Jr. would be an understatement. The expectations for Earnhardt were high even after a dismal 2009.
Earnhardt came out of nowhere in the final laps of the Daytona 500 to finish second. It was a move that some compared to his father, Dale Earnhardt.
The next week at California he finished a disappointing 32nd place. Once again the questions began to arise which Earnhardt will we see each week?
Earnhardt and his crew chief, Lance McGrew really struggled with communication throughout the race. There were times throughout the season where a radio conversation would get heated. Whether it was an adjustment that was made or a call on pit road, the conversations would get heated.
Earnhardt and McGrew played it down as just heat of the moment but the results were mixed. Earnhardt said "When you're inside that race car and something bad happens ... when you feel slighted and you're in the car and you're strapped in and it's a little claustrophobic, there's no audience," Earnhardt said. "You've got millions of people watching on TV, but there's really no one to hear your side of it. There is a very small avenue on that radio to get your point across, because nobody can see your facial expressions, nobody can see your body language, nothing.It's sort of like talking online. It's hard to read tone. Even though you can hear me, it's hard to understand tone or who it is directed at or whatever. Every time pretty much I get misconstrued."
In his first 10 races, he had only three top 10 finishes. Following his eighth place finish at Texas, he went six races without a top 10 finish. His best finish in that stretch was a 13th at Talladega.
The results though started to show improvement starting at the road course in Sonoma. He then went on to score two more top 10 finishes including a fourth at Daytona in July.
After Daytona, Earnhardt and his teams’ struggles came to the forefront. He struggled on a week to week basis with the handling of his car. From Chicagoland in July to New Hampshire in September; Earnhardt did not log a top 10 finish.
For the second time in three years he would miss the Chase. Following Daytona in July he was 11th in the points by the Chase he was 18th.
In the final 10 races he had only two top 10’s which included a seventh at Martinsville. Outside those top 10’s he had six finishes of 20th or worse.
He finished the season 21st in the points.
In 2010, Earnhardt only led 185 laps. His average start was 19.0 and an average finish of 18.6. He spent only 38 percent of the laps in the top 15 and 81 percent of the time he ran on the lead lap.
Earnhardt did not register a DNF in 2010.
There is a lot of work ahead for Earnhardt and his new crew chief, Steve LeTarte. For Earnhardt maybe the change will do him good and get him back into victory lane.
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