Earnhardt Jr. Can't COPE with COT

This is Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s second full year at Hendrick Motorsports and, by now, most predicted he would have several wins under his belt with his new team, would be solidly in the Chase, and a likely contender for his first Sprint Cup title.

But, when Junior made the announcement two years ago that he was leaving DEI for the powerhouse stable that is HMS, who could have predicted that he'd be little more than an also-ran this year? That he'd have just one top-five finish in 16 races and would be 20th in points - lower in the Chase standings than, say, Juan Pablo Montoya, David Reutimann, Brian Vickers, Marcos Ambrose, and Jamie McMurray?

But those are the facts.

Earnhardt Jr.'s average finish this year is a 20.9 - exactly the same as … Casey Mears.

For the record, I think Dale Earnhardt Jr. is a good racecar driver. I think he has talent (though I sometimes question his ambition).

But Junior's biggest problem can be summarized in three letters: COT - the acronym for NASCAR's boxy, boggy Car of Tomorrow.

The proof?

The first-ever COT race was held in March, 2007, at Bristol.

Prior to that date, Earnhardt Jr. had won 17 Cup races.

Since then, he's won … one - a fuel mileage win at Michigan last year.

Earnhardt Jr. detested the COT from the onset. After testing the car while it was still in R&D in 2006, he complained, "It doesn't look racy. It doesn't look exciting. It doesn't make me want to go buy a Chevrolet tomorrow. It doesn't make me excited about walking up to it. You take show cars to a gas station to get people excited to stop and buy gas and look at the car. With that thing, nobody's going to pull over."

Not exactly a ringing endorsement from the sport's biggest star.

Though he did make the Chase last year, Junior struggled in the final ten races and finished lowest of the 12 top contenders - not even high enough to be recognized on stage at the season-ending Awards Banquet.

This year, short of a miracle, he won't even finish the season in the top 20.

Since running second at Talladega in April, Earnhardt's average race finish has been a dismal 25th, despite a dramatic crew chief change that was supposed to breathe new life into the struggling No. 88 team.

Pundits have long postulated what is wrong with Dale Earnhardt Jr., but he's already provided the answer - both in words and statistics.

"This is a hell of an excuse for a race car," he said recently. "It's hard to drive. It makes everybody's job harder."

Especially that of his forlorn fans.