Family business might be costing Earnhardt where it counts

Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s transition to Hendrick Motorsports hasn't been as successful as Kyle Busch's migration to Joe Gibbs Racing. But with the season Busch is having, maybe that's an unfair comparison.

However, when your last name is Earnhardt, high expectations come with the territory.

Tony Eury Jr. has been in the pit box for all but one of Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s 18 career victories. (Getty Images)

Junior's first season in the Hendrick stable has to be considered a success. After all, he does have a win to his credit, which is more than teammate Jeff Gordon can say. And Earnhardt has hovered near the top of the Sprint Cup Series point standings through the first 22 races of the year.

Impressive to some, but Earnhardt knows being on top of the standings and the Chase seedings is where he needs to be.

"I would trade my season with Kyle any day," Earnhardt said. "He's had a great year and won a lot of races. He's a real amazing talent behind the wheel. He's got a lot of ability. I would like to have had the type of season he's had, regardless of where that put me on the radar (laughs). I would like to give my sponsors the best opportunity they can get and the most exposure they can get. Winning races is how you do it."

Unfortunately for Earnhardt, finding victory lane hasn't been easy.

His win at Michigan in June was well-deserved and came on a fuel strategy that got the No. 88 to the finish line first.

But there have been other times when Earnhardt had potential victories taken away when strategies and preparation went sour.

Like last week at Watkins Glen, for instance.

Earnhardt Jr. was leading the race when crew chief Tony Eury Jr. decided to stay out rather than pit with the rest of the field during a round of scheduled fuel stops. Moments later a caution appeared and the No. 88 was forced to pit road for fuel while the other lead-lap cars stayed on track.

And just like that, Earnhardt's day was over. He fell too far behind the leaders and was never in contention the rest of the day, and was saddled with a 22nd-place finish.

"We were fast in practice, lead some of the race just ran out of car," a dejected Earnhardt said after the race. "Strategy got messed up there at the end. We should have done something different, but I don't know. I really didn't know what the strategy was and what Tony Jr. and the guys were really trying to make happen up there, but I know it didn't work out for us."

"I made a mistake," Eury said. "Had the caution not come out, we would have been sitting pretty. But it ended up being the wrong decision."