I understand that we're still very early in the 2013 Sprint Cup time, but I have noticed something that is quite strikinga'and I am wondering just how many others have noticed a similar thing. When Jimmie Johnson became the points chief after winning the season-opening Daytona 500 monthly before, his fans quickly started touting Johnson as throwing off a work that may result in November with his sixth Sprint Cup title. When Brad Keselowski opened the summer season with two third-place finishes and two other fourth-place finishes in the very first four racesa'an amazing display of consistency, as well as taking over the factors lead after last Sunday's race at Bristola'fans were doing some offering of the own. With this kind of strong start, it appears fairly clear that Keselowski has picked up where he left off after winning the Sprint Cup tournament last period. But where's all of the talk been regarding Dale Earnhardt Jr. and his begin to this season? Earnhardt has been in the same way powerful as Johnson and Keselowski, done runner-up to Johnson at Daytona, fifth at Phoenix, seventh at Vegas and sixth at Bristol. Following three of the very first four contests, Junior was placed 2nd in the overall Cup standings. And one other time, he was ranked third (after Nevada). Even when Kasey Kahne won at Bristol, talk-radio callers and blog owners were hypothesizing that the success could be just the thing to begin Kahne on his way to his first job Cup championship and his astonishing career-best fourth-place finish in last season's rankings was just an indicator of even better things to come. So, I will ask again, considering that Junior is back second invest the standings heading in to Sunday's competition at Fontana, merely a mere nine details behind Keselowski, why are not more folks speaking about Earnhardt and the remarkable time start he's had? Is Junior becoming the Rodney Dangerfield of NASCAR, where no matter what he does, he gets little if any regard for his successes. Up to I hate to state it, can it be that Junior supporters have become therefore negative or pessimistic on the course of his career that they've seen this movie too many timesa'and think the outcome can yet again be like the old Light emitting diode Zeppelin tune: "The Song Remains The Same?" Let us face it, Junior's legion of supporters is neither as big nor as optimistic as it used to be. If this was 2004 in the place of 2013 and Earnhardt was still at the company his father founded (Dale Earnhardt, Inc.) and he was still backed by Budweiser, the fan reaction will be somewhat differenta'and substantially louder, for sure. But that's no more the casea'and has not been for probably the final six months. One need only look back again to last period to start to see the newest illustration. Earnhardt even sat atop the items after the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis, used the first 25 days largely in the top three positions in the rankings (and never below the top five) and got out to the best start of his Cup career. Just what exactly happens? He was reseeded seventh if the Chase for the Sprint Cup began, was pulled out of the fourth battle of the Chase at Talladega and missed the ensuing two races, coping with a concussion. When that happened, so went perhaps Earnhardt's most readily useful bid for a Cup title up to now. Here is another example: In 2004, Earnhardt had a superb start to the summer season, winning the Daytona 500 on the way to a career-best six wins overall. Where did he finish in the last standings? Fifth. And then there's the flip side: Earnhardt started out the 2003 season totally, with finishes of 33rd and 36th in the initial two races, simply to change things around with a vengeance and easily. By the time the fifth race of the season was over, he was back up to fourth in the standings, dropped back to fifth the following week and then kept in either second or third invest the weekly standings for the remainder of the season. He eventually finished third in the final year ahead of the implementation of the Chase structure in 2004. But as time has gone on, not to say all the struggles Earnhardt has hada'particularly in the wins categorya'maybe it is actually not that big of a shock that his fans are not as positive about his overall odds as Johnson's, Keselowski's or Kahne's. Having won only two races in the last five seasons and a total of five wins in the last seven seasons (from 2005 to the current), it is understandable if fans are careful, if not experienced, by Earnhardt's background, no pun intended. Perhaps, the only way the Junior Army will finally get excited and believe he may finally gain his first Cup championship is if he has the final battle of the summer season at Homestead by having an almost insurmountable 42-point lead. And even then, they may still maybe not be fully convinced until he was standing atop the post-race stage, holding the championship trophy. Because in regards to Earnhardt, even when he's working his most readily useful, there's usually that hesitation and doubt that the bottom is a result of drop out at any timea'and just one more possible champion quote may fall by the wayside once again. But who knows, maybe this season may end up differently. We can only hope. Follow me on Twitter @JerryBonkowski
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