For Dale Earnhardt Jr. the entire season may hinge on this very weekend. The disappointment, frustration and scrutiny of the sport’s most popular driver has been well documented over the past weeks and months, and Earnhardt Jr. is continuing to feel the pressure.

Mistakes, miscues and poor handling race cars have left Earnhardt eighteenth in points, 419 marks out of first and 89 outside the top-12. Racing in front of his hometown crowd this weekend in the Coca-Cola 600, Earnhardt and crew chief Tony Eury Jr. will need to show up in a big way if they want to salvage the 2009 season.

During Saturday night’s Sprint All-Star Race at the Lowe’s Motor Speedway, Junior looked to turn things around with a forth-place qualifying run. However, once the green flag dropped so did the No. 88. Fighting an ill-handling car, Junior quickly backslid through the field.

Making adjustments during the mandatory green-flag stop on Lap 25, Junior was able to make his way back to seventh by the end of the first segment. After the second segment, Junior was back to fourteenth. Continuing to work on the handling of the car, Earnhardt was able to get to tenth when Tony Stewart took the checkered flag at the end of the night.

While the results show a tenth-place finish, what was more evident on the night was that Earnhardt Jr. was never a factor in the race. He struggled through the corners and the team continued to make adjustments throughout the night. With points on the line and frustration mounting, this team can’t afford to have a performance of this caliber during Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600.

As a part of Hendrick Motorsports, Junior and the No. 88 crew is the only bunch yet to win a race. Mark Martin leads the group with two wins, Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon have also visited Victory Lane, yet Junior is simply struggling to finish inside the top-20.

Over the last five events, Junior has finished 20th or worse four times. His lone top-5 this season came at Talladega in April, where he finished runner-up to Brad Keselowski.

“Let’s take the performance out of the equation just for a second and let me tell you personally how I feel about Dale Earnhardt, Jr.,” teammate Mark Martin said this weekend at Lowe’s. “I feel that he’s the strongest man, got the broadest, strongest shoulders of any man in NASCAR racing and I would not trade places with him. Absolutely not.”

“He’s probably right. I don’t think I would want to put anybody in my shoes,” Dale Jr. responded later that day. “When you’re running good there are no problems. Even though there are, there aren’t but you can deal with it. We just have to get to running better and then you can handle everything and then nothing is a big deal. When you’re running bad you’re just a target and you’re angry because you’re running bad and frustrated. You can’t win for losing. If you get angry, you’re a jerk. If you take it on the chin, you don’t care. Everybody has got an opinion about you. You just move along. There ain’t nothing to it.”

The only thing this team can do about the situation is to show up at the track and prove to everyone in the stands and in the media they can still get the job done. Every driver goes through tough times. His father struggled through the 1997 season, but broke through with a win in the 1998 Daytona 500. Jeff Gordon struggled to find Victory Lane last year, but was there again in Texas of all places earlier this year.

This weekend Dale Jr. is at crucial point in his season and his career. He and Tony Jr. need to go out there and put all the scrutiny and attention behind them and focus on what they do best. You never know, at the end of the evening it may turn out to be one of the biggest stories of the year, but if not, it is going to be a long hot summer for the No. 88 team.

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