Dale Earnhardt Jr. is told by crew chief Steve Letarte to bring it down pit road as Earnhardt's engine erupts into flames resulting from a broken radiator. For the second weekend in a row, something, or someone has caused them to have a poor finish as the Chase nears. At Infineon this past weekend, it wasn't just a poor finish, it was terrible - not even a top 40 - 41st to be exact.
With NASCAR's new points system, every point counts tremendously, so finishing low in the running order is far worse than it has been in years past. What was once a top three team in points, faultered to 7th place in the standings after a race at Earnhardt's obvious hated track.
With this being only his second DNF of the season, Earnhardt Jr., along with his new revived team, have been solid to say the least. Scoring 3 top 5's and 8 top 10's has made Jr. say this has been one of his most consistent years of his career - if not the most consistent, even without a win yet.
However, the summer months have proven to be deadly to NASCAR's most popular driver, with a string of tracks that are not the best for him.
Many who are critical of him say that June would be a crucial month for him, and while he had started strong in the early month of June - the highlight of that being Pocono, a track where Earnhardt has had little success - trouble two weeks in a row have put him closer to falling out of the Chase for the Sprint Cup.
While he still has quite a gap, this new points system has proven many times this year that no one is safe, and that every point can be considered to make or break a team's season.
Luckily for the 88 team, Daytona - a very strong track for Dale Earnhardt Jr. - is up next on the schedule, but even an Earnhardt is not safe from the unpredictability of a restrictor plate race. Earnhardt himself isn't looking forward to it all that much.
"I'm not looking forward to going to Daytona, not with the way the (two-car) drafting is there," he said. "But we'll just have to see if we can get lucky out there. What's after Daytona? I'll be glad to go there."
After Daytona, no matter the result, Earnhardt and his team must perform. With teams climbing their way up the standings after a rough start to the 2011 season, they must not only be on offense, but deffense as well.
Are they truly in trouble? Perhaps not, but one thing is for certain: 3rd in points is more conforting than 7th.
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