NASCAR Chase Rundown - 12th Place: Dale Earnhardt Jr.

A Big move to Hendrick Motorsports and Junior Nation doesn't even get to see there hero on stage at the awards banquet in NYC. Only 3 top tens and 5 finishes outside the top 20 will not get it done in the chase for NASCAR's Sprint Cup.

Starting 4th in the Chase, things looked good for the #88 to bring home his first big-time championship. A solid top 5 at New Hampshire gave "The Nation" encouragement for the next 9 races, but finishing 3 laps down in 24th at Dover quickly dashed those hopes. Things didn't get much better with a 25.5 average over the next 3 races. At this point the Chase was pretty much over for the Amp Energy/National Guard team as they now sat in 10th place.  Junior earned a well fought 2nd place finish at Martinsville, but still lost points to the Chase leader and the winner of the race, Jimmie Johnson.

A 19.5 average finish over the final 4 races sealed the deal for June-Bug and there would be no joy in Kannapolis this year.

Overall, not a bad year: 1 win, 16 top 10's, but you've got to do much better when you are playing the same game as Jimmie Johnson, Carl Edwards and Kyle Busch. Next season Mark Martin joins Hendrick Motorsports and Dale Earnhardt Jr. should benefit greatly from the wisdom of a man who has finished in the top 5 of the NASCAR top series Championship standings 12 times.