It’s time for Dale Earnhardt, Jr. to put up or shut up.
The third-generation driver wanted an opportunity to race for a NASCAR championship like his seven-time championship- winning father, now he has that chance.
Having signed a high-profile contract with Hendrick Motorsports, Earnhardt will be part of a team that has won six Nextel Cup titles and currently boasts four-time champion Jeff Gordon and defending series titlist Jimmie Johnson.
Hendrick Motorsports has dominated the 2007 campaign and Earnhardt has been little more than mediocre this season, his final one at Dale Earnhardt, Inc. after his announcement in mid-May he would leave the team his father founded at the end of this year.
Through most of his Cup Series career, Earnhardt has gotten by on his family name. He’s won 17 Cup Series races, but he’s never led the series in victories and he’s never seriously challenged for a championship.
It’s time to find out if the 32-year-old driver, who is without a doubt the most marketable driver in NASCAR racing, can become its most successful competitor.
While he never came out and said he feels the equipment at DEI is sub-par, he has insinuated that the past two seasons. While Earnhardt has struggled to get to the front this year, his DEI teammate and close friend, Martin Truex, Jr., has been splendid, winning his first race two weeks ago at Dover and keeping his No. 1 in contention for The Chase.
Earnhardt will join a Hendrick Motorsports team that has won 66 races since 2000, including 10 of this year’s 14 events.
To his credit, Earnhardt knows the pressure will be on for him to win the title.
“I thought it was a huge risk to leave and go to drive for Rick,” he said. “Say I don’t win championships. I could have tried to dodge the criticism that will come from that, but in the end I’m going to say, ‘I had the chance to go drive for the best in the business, and I didn’t go do it.’ Now what kind of person does that?”
Maybe the most difficult thing for Earnhardt will be the long wait (unless a deal is brokered for Earnhardt to switch teams before the end of 2007) before his debut with Hendrick Motorsports in the 50th annual Daytona 500 next February.
“I'm excited just to get in the car,” he said. “I don't feel really any pressure. I feel pretty comfortable. I think once I get into the testing mode and all of those things during the off season, there won't really be any question marks for me or any kind of pressure. I think I'll be anticipating it so much that I don't think that the pressure is going to get to me.”
He may have been the most sought after driver in NASCAR history and he is joining a super team, but in many ways Earnhardt remains as humble as he was the first time his dad put him in one of his Busch Series cars.
“I've always said that I've done more in this sport than I've ever anticipated,” he explained. “I just wanted to be able to pay my bills and once I got past that, everything else was a bonus.
“It seems like to me, three years ago, I was three months behind on my phone bill and living in a trailer with Kerry (Earnhardt), and his kids would jump over the couch back and forth and I would have to lock myself in my room just to get some peace and quiet. Those days don't seem like that far or that long ago.”
But still the championship question remains.
“I think that I'll have a good opportunity to succeed and win a lot of races,” he said. “I think personally I will cherish a championship on my mantle when it's all said and done. I think I can live without it obviously. 
“But I feel like, yeah, I think I'd be, you know, 90, 95 percent on my goals that I set for myself personally throughout my career, if I can't get that championship.
“I really do want it.”