No Junior Prom: Earnhardt, who is racing in a good Hendrick car, has fans wondering when the victories will come

CONCORD -- They're waiting.

They're waiting in campers and tents and pickups spread across the Cabarrus County hills outside the race track. They're waiting on barstools and pool decks and driving ranges across the Carolinas.

They're waiting for Junior -- not necessarily to spot his reddish hair, touch his greenish car and snatch his whitish cap, although all those things would satisfy primal urges that permeate the Dale Earnhardt Jr. club. Ten years into the gig, nearly everyone who needs an autograph or officially licensed souvenir has one.

This isn't about overpriced trinkets. This is about real emotional needs -- the thrill of the high-speed pursuit, the swelling roar of the crowd, the joy of victory's adhesive champagne.

Remember?

In Junior's lost season -- or his third straight lost season, if you measure NASCAR a certain way -- the memories fade beyond the fourth turn. Based on trinket sales and unscientific polls, Junior remains the public's favorite driver.

He has won the sanctioned popularity award six straight seasons. He also has won one Sprint Cup race in the past 109 starts, between the Richmond spring race in 2006 and the 600-miler scheduled here for the supper hour Sunday evening. The single checkered flag: Michigan last summer, before bankruptcy talk gripped the manufacturers and Junior's 76-race drought got any dustier. The new rival for Junior's popularity trophy, Mark Martin, has won two races in the past four starts. Martin is 50 years old and doesn't look a day over 66. He's one of Junior's three teammates in the Rick Hendrick garage. He's also driving his first full schedule since 2006, smiling everywhere he goes.

Like many folks in the sport, Martin empathizes with the 34-year-old Earnhardt, insisting that he wouldn't want to spend a day in Junior's shoes. You would need a shoehorn to cram the unrelenting expectations into those fireproof sneakers. You would need earplugs to muffle catcalls about missing the championship chase two years ago or ranking 18th this year, six spots and 89 points outside the field for the 2009 playoffs.

Building frustration

Junior sees the numbers and hears the chatter. His frustration grows. Two weeks ago at Darlington, where a nostalgic red bus parked near the garage still pined for the days Junior drove the No. 8 Bud machine, he didn't bother hiding his distaste for the quirky track.

"I don't really enjoy it that much," he said. "It's all right. I don't know. I've got to run. It's my job whether I like it or not."

A reporter wondered why he seemed so edgy. "You go sit in that car," Junior replied. "It's not fun."

Finishing 27th wasn't a kick, nor was slipping from fourth place to 10th in the all-star race last Saturday night.

He has a decent record at Lowe's Motor Speedway, just down the road from his Kannapolis birthplace and his Lake Norman residence. He has placed among the top 10 nine times in 19 starts at the track where he made his big-league debut May 30, 1999. Junior will start 27th Sunday.

"Everything is fine when you're running good," he said. "When you're running bad, all the little problems are really big problems, and all the big problems are serious, serious issues."

Junior has dealt with more than virtually anyone. Earnhardt's legendary father died at Daytona in 2001, just as winner Michael Waltrip and runner-up Junior sped toward the finish line. Junior worked for stepmother Teresa (which he said was no bed of roses) and left the company after she squashed his ownership proposal.

Junior finished third in the 2003 points race. He won six races in 2004, dodging Bristol trouble and driving the Bristol lines his father taught him in a classic showing that approached validation. With fifth-place title finishes that season and in 2006, Junior looked like a future champion in search of a chariot suitable for a superstar.

Change of scenery

One dismal year later, he signed with Hendrick, an established giant bold enough to dump the incredibly talented Kyle Busch, a high-maintenance comet.

Junior changed colors, sponsors and numbers. He wiggled into the No. 88 at the outset of the 2008 schedule, and now he mainly squirms.

Busch dominated the circuit before the chase last season and has three wins this year, along with fabulous performances in the second-tier Nationwide car series and the truck series. Martin's recent hot streak put him in contention for his first championship, which would spoil teammate Jimmie Johnson's quest for a record fourth consecutive title. Hendrick driver Jeff Gordon leads in points.

Tony Stewart, who won the all-star exhibition, and Ryan Newman use Hendrick equipment. They joined Martin, Johnson and Gordon in the front pack at Darlington, giving the Hendrick label five of the top seven. Missing in action -- Junior.

He missed pit stalls twice at the Daytona 500. He barely missed nailing a NASCAR cleaning truck during a Darlington caution. Unbiased witnesses question his concentration. Critics question his skills. Apologists question the continuing relationship with crew chief and cousin Tony Eury Jr., a charge that reeks of those know-nothing hotheads who always want to fire football coordinators.

Junior's fans cover the spectrum. Amid the disappointments, they stand by their man.

"That's what fans are for," Junior said. "That's what they do. I wouldn't call a guy a fan if he jumped ship in the middle of the season if a guy is doing poorly or a team is doing poorly in any sport. I don't need any fair-weather fans. I appreciate the ones that are loyal."

The loyalty tests get tougher. Junior's 18 career victories include seven restrictor-plate races at Daytona and Talladega, but he has managed just one win in more than two years. He drives some of the sport's best equipment, an inescapable fact in Hendrick garage logic.

Junior has no excuses. He also has lots of fans, still waiting.

■ Lenox Rawlings can be reached at lrawlings@wsjournal.com.