Dale Earnhardt Jr. has two wins – and considerable momentum

Dale Earnhardt Jr. has been part of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup before. Six times to be exact. And he’s had some fine finishes in the final championship standings; third in 2003, which was the year before the Chase was instituted, and fifth-place finishes in ‘04, ’06 and ’13, all under the Chase format.

And now Earnhardt, who has two race victories, is all but assured on being in the Chase again. There’s a growing consensus, however, that there is something different about this season for the 39-year-old. Considered for so long by so many as a champion-in-waiting, Earnhardt has the look of a champion-on-deck. This is a welcomed experience to his millions of fans who have voted him as the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series’ Most Popular Driver for the last 11 seasons, all the while waiting for him to finally win the championship that his legendary father, the late Dale Earnhardt, won seven times.

Dale Jr., it appears, could be approaching a “Sr.” moment.

Following his victory this past Sunday at Pocono Raceway, Earnhardt assessed the long road traveled over the last 14 years. He came to the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series in 2000 after winning consecutive NASCAR Nationwide Series titles in 1998-99.

“It’s elusive, man,” Earnhardt said at Pocono, regarding Sprint Cup success. “I don’t worry about [being criticized] as much anymore. I’m turning 40 this year, and the ‘over-rated’ talk is way behind me. That used to bother me when I was younger, but when you get old you don’t really care anymore about those kind of things. … I feel like I’m such a lucky guy to have this second opportunity almost to be competitive again, and so I don’t really worry about the detractors.”

This week, Earnhardt is looking for a third victory, at a track where he has had success in the past – super-fast, two-mile Michigan International Speedway, site of Sunday’s Quicken Loans 400. Earnhardt won the event at MIS in 2008 and 2012.