The Chase - Junior Hammers Away Toward Drought's End

Phoenix, Nov. 9, 2011: Even though his winless streak stretched to 127 races, Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s recent performance offers hope that the end of the dry spell may be near.

Earnhardt Jr. jumped two spots in the NASCAR Sprint Cup standings to the seventh position Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway, claiming his second consecutive seventh-place run. He sits 81 points behind series leader Carl Edwards with two races left, but is just 46 points behind third-place Kevin Harvick in a logjam of drivers in the middle of the Chase pack. Emerging from that cluster of drivers for a podium finish would put Earnhardt Jr. in position to equal the best points finish of his career – third in 2003 – or approach his next-best season rank – fifth, in 2004 and ’06.

Earnhardt Jr. finished 10th earlier this season at Phoenix International Raceway, and previous outings in the desert bode well for the No. 88 team come Sunday. His two wins there make the Arizona track one of the four NASCAR Sprint Cup circuits (Talladega, Daytona and Richmond are the others) where Earnhardt Jr. has multiple victories.