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This last weekend at Lowes was painful to watch for two reasons: The rain and the 88.

I started watching NASCAR in 1997 and in that season, Dale Earnhardt Sr was the underdog. He wasn’t on good form and I started to support him, hoping he would improve and return to the days of competitiveness I had read about and seen on video highlights.

When Dale Jr came into the sport, I latched onto him and followed him through the Busch series. I supported his meteoric rise to the Cup series and like an awful lot of NASCAR fans I put my full support behind him after the death of his father in the 2001 Daytona 500.

After a few years of success with his fathers team, Dale Jr left and joined Hendrick motorsports. Last season at times Jr looked like he was a championship contender, but he slowly faded as the season went on and as we started the 2009 Sprint Cup season, he hardly raised his head. Dale Jr is a sleeping giant.

I think it’s quite shocking that Hendrick have let this continue for so long now. I also wonder why?

Dale Jr and Tony Eury Jr (Jr’s Crewchief) are cousins. I can’t imagine how hard it would be for Dale Jr to let his cousin go out of a job and that’s why it has to be time for Hendrick to do it for him. There’s plenty of room in the organization for him, but I think Jr needs someone else to help him.

Still, it isn’t unheard of for a superstar to have a bad year in a Hendrick car: During 2008, Jeff Gordon did not win a single race for the first time since 1993 (his rookie season). I really hope that Dale Jr has a similar turn around because this year, Gordon is flying.