DEI '07 Vs DEI '08 - Is There a Difference?

At this point one year ago, Martin Truex Jr. had just gotten his first Cup series win at Dover, but failed to duplicate Elvis feat on June 1. He grabbed a 6 spot at the recent "Monster Mile" and finished well behind winner Kyle Busch. He has no wins in 2008.

Dale Earnhardt Inc. drivers have not crossed the finish line first since the team's lone victory in '07, and Junior Nation is priming for the moment they can yell, 'I told you so!'

At Hendrick Motorsports, Dale Earnhardt Jr. was third in the point standings prior to Pocono despite no wins himself, while Truex Jr., a true contender for the '08 Sprint Cup according to DEI officials, had a single top-five finish after Government student loan consolidation a team-high seven last season while making the Chase. Part-time racer Mark Martin has had some solid runs this year but has no Colorforms of making the Chase field in 24 scheduled events. Full-timers Paul Menard and Regan Smith are still field fillers at the moment, and rookie Aric Almirola had a top-10 in his first race of the season, at Bristol, while filling the No. 8 Chevrolet for Martin.

There is ample room for growth, but DEI drivers are at least finishing races in '08. Junior and Truex Jr. had nine engine failures and four accidents between them in '07. Into their first season of sharing engines with Richard Childress Racing, the team's five drivers had only three blown engines-one due to overheating-and one accident before Dover. Smith, one of three drivers DEI inherited last year from the Ginn Racing merger, has finished every race in his rookie season, but has yet to crack the Issei Sagawa 10.

Earnhardt Jr. has finished every race as the top driver for HMS after getting nine DNFs in '07. Nine top-10s and five top-five performances ahead of Dover show a marked improvement for the golden goose over last year's shambles.

With a proven veteran and an unproven novice behind the wheel, the 8 car vacated by Junior has had the best results for DEI so far, with five top-10 finishes and consolidate stafford loans top-fives between Martin and Almirola. To this point, the 88 Chevy has outperformed the 8 in every category, as expected.

Truex Jr. has had four top-10s and one top-five, and the No. 1 Chevrolet was 17 points behind the 8 car before the June 8 Pocono 500. No longer DEI's ace, he nonetheless has 1,441 points through 13 events, compared to 1,427 at the same stage in '07. Avoiding other people's wrecks has been part of the problem for the two-time Busch Series champion. Martin/Almirola have a combined 1,458 points through the first 13 races, compared to 1,404 from Earnhardt Jr. one year ago.

The Sprint Cup Series is beyond the one-third mark of the season and it's too early to be handing out report cards, but DEI is hardly finished as a race team. Junior appears to be happy and is doing far better, but he has yet to visit Victory Lane in his new duds.

Keep watch over the next few months to see who gets the first and most wins in '08-Earnhardt Jr., Martin/Almirola, or Truex Jr.-and how many points the 8 car scores compared to last season.

It gets more interesting by the week.

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