Another week and another disappointing finish for Dale Earnhardt Jr. and the No. 88 crew.  A season full of struggles, frustrations and finger pointing, this team is starting to run out of excuses.

Late in Sunday’s Samsung 500 at the Texas Motor Speedway, Earnhardt Jr. hit pit road under caution and once again found trouble in the pits. A missing lug nut on the left front tire forced the No. 88 back to pit road a second time. Following the lapped cars in for service, Earnhardt Jr. missed his pit box and was forced to go back around the track.

“That wasn’t nothing,” Earnhardt Jr. said of driving past his pit stall. “We were already last in line on the lead lap. We come down pit road and all the lapped cars were in their stalls and didn’t want to get t-boned by one of them. I didn’t get it in the stall so we just went around and came back in, that time pit road was empty.”

This was not the first time Earnhardt Jr. has had issues on pit road in 2009. During the season-opening Daytona 500, Junior slid through his pit stall and later received a penalty for pitting outside the box.

Looking to make up for the earlier troubles, crew chief Tony Eury Jr. opted for two tires with seventy laps to go.  The crew got the job done and sent the No. 88 Chevrolet out front with the lead.

Taking the lead for the first time on the day, Earnhardt Jr. restarted with lapped cars to his inside. Going into the first turn after the restart, Kyle Busch – who was a lap down – jumped to the outside of the car in front of him to make it three wide with Earnhardt on the outside. Busch’s No. 18 bobbled in the corner, drifted up the track and into the side of Earnhardt. The leader was forced to lift and lost the lead as a result.

Falling through the pack on old tires and frustrated with the car, Earnhardt Jr. headed to the top of the track and the familiar high line. Moving up the track, Junior’s problems only got worse.  On Lap 287, the car made contact with the wall and the car continued to fall through the field.  When teammate Jeff Gordon took the checkered flag to end the day, Earnhardt Jr. wound up in the same spot he started the event, 20^th.

“Nothing was really wrong with the car after we hit the wall,” Earnhardt Jr. pointed out. “It was frustrating at the time but, I was running real, real hard all day. Trying too hard and run well, and just got in to the wall down there in the middle of one and two. The car jumped sideways. Those cars built pretty tough. It didn’t bend anything in the car. We just running real hard there, trying to get the best finish we could there. Just got us in there a little deep and got in the fence. My mistake.”

“My mistake” seems to be a common theme with the sport’s most popular driver this year. After taking out half the field during the Daytona 500, Junior was unapologetic for his actions and caught a bit of backlash for it. Constant mistakes on pit road by the driver have ruined chances and mired this team is tough situations on almost a weekly basis. 

Talk has surrounded this team for the last few weeks and questions have been raised whether or not a change is needed in some form or fashion.  Many of the finger pointing was sent in the direction of crew chief Tony Eury Jr., however both Earnhardt Jr. and team owner Rick Hendrick stepped up to Eury’s defense. 

Prior to the race at Martinsville, Earnhardt Jr. sat down with Ken Howes (vice president of competition for Hendrick Motorsports), Brian Whitsell (team manager), Doug Duchardt (vice president of development at HMS) and team owner Rick Hendrick. Feeling the pressure, Earnhardt Jr. knew something needed to be done.

“I wanted to get them all in a room where it was quiet away from the pressures of the race track,” Earnhardt Jr. explained. “I just wanted them to tell me their real thoughts and give it to me.  If it was a punch in the face then that’s what it was.  I just wanted to hear it from them as to what they wanted me to do and what I could do better.  I wanted to get away from the track to where we could speak privately about it and I ain’t going to take any credit for calling it.  All that was facilitated by Rick (Hendrick) anyways to get better.  Everything we do he gets credit for.

“It’s great to hear from those guys,” he went on to say. “They have so much experience and they do such a great job.  They just know that company so well, they know what race car drivers need to do and need to be and how they need to act. They know how good crews are supposed to be.  I just want them to lead me, man.  I want them to guide me and tell me when they think I’m doing the wrong thing.”

While the meeting may have had an affect last weekend at Martinsville (where Earnhardt Jr. finished eighth), Sunday’s showing in Texas once again proved there is a great deal of work that needs to be done.