Earnhardt ranks fifth in the Sprint Cup standings with two races remaining. While having no shot to win the Chase for the Sprint Cup, a top-five finish in the standings would be his best since 2006.

He ranks second in the series with 20 top-10 finishes. He ranks 10th in top-fives with eight. He is one of nine drivers with at least two poles. He ranks 11th in laps led (312) and 10th in miles led (439.122).

After a blown engine at Chicago to start the Chase, Earnhardt has performed as well as anyone in the past seven races, producing three top-five and six top-10 finishes. He is close to matching all the numbers he produced last year, a season that went awry when he suffered a concussion during the Chase.

But he is not one of the 16 drivers who have won a race this year. He needs to win to avoid his fourth winless season in the past five years and fifth in the last seven. He snapped a four-year winless streak with a victory at Michigan last year.

He has enough second-place finishes to show that he’s close. He has five this season, including three in the last six races.

“We want to put forward a good account of ourselves in the Chase because you're in there for a reason and you don't want to be an also-ran,” Earnhardt said. “So we feel like we're doing a lot of good work and getting really close to probably breaking through and getting a win.

“We've only got two more opportunities at it, but (I’m) real pleased with just the speed of the car. “

This is Earnhardt’s third consecutive season in the Chase after two subpar seasons in 2009 and 2010. He and crew chief Steve Letarte have made the Chase in each of their three years together.

“I think our team has continued to get better every season, and it's really showing, especially right now in the results that we've got,” Earnhardt said.

Earnhardt sounds confident and team owner Rick Hendrick has noticed. He wouldn’t count Earnhardt out in the final two races at Phoenix and Homestead. At Phoenix in March, Earnhardt was leading before the final round of pit stops, when he got blocked in on pit road and the slow stop ruined his track position.

“You can see it the way he walks,” Hendrick said about Earnhardt’s confidence. “You can see it when he gets out of the car. You can see it when I talk to him about the race.

“He'll send me a text and say, ‘Man, that car was good. I loved driving that car like that.’ I see it in the way he goes to the racetrack and how he prepares for the race.”


TEXAS WRECK A ‘BAD DREAM’


Jeff Gordon will try to regroup after a disappointing race last week at Texas Motor Speedway, where his hopes of winning a fifth Cup title were dashed when a blown tire caused him to wreck.

Gordon spent most of the race — 165 laps — in the garage as the team repaired the damage. All the Hendrick Motorsports driver could do was sit in the team transporter and watch points slip away. He fell from third in the standings to sixth, 69 points behind leader Jimmie Johnson with two races remaining.

“I was just sitting there going, ‘I can't believe this,’” Gordon said Tuesday. “I felt like I was in a bad dream and I was going to wake up any second. The longer the time went by, the more and more I realized this is reality. You have to face it, deal with it, put it behind you as fast as you can and move on.”

In some ways, Gordon still feels fortunate to be in the Chase for the Sprint Cup. He was added to the field by NASCAR Chairman Brian France after NASCAR ruled that Michael Waltrip Racing and perhaps other teams tried to manipulate the results of the final regular-season race at Richmond.

“We've been through so much, not just this year but the last couple years as a team, just clawing and fighting our way to get in the Chase, ups and downs, trying to win races, sometimes just trying to finish races,” Gordon said.

“We get in this year, things start to go well for us, we find ourselves in a great position (and) it's all over in a split second. It's pretty devastating for the whole team. You work so hard to get to that point, it's definitely a letdown.”

The goal now for Gordon is to finish third in the standings. He is 29 points behind Kevin Harvick for the third spot with the race this weekend at Phoenix and the season finale at Homestead remaining.

“The confidence is still high,” Gordon said. “The car was fantastic again this past weekend, felt like we were going to have a great weekend.

“We take that confidence in the cars that we've been bringing to the racetrack into Phoenix this weekend, on to Homestead, finish out the season the best we can and hopefully move up in points again.”


JOHNSON DAUGHTERS RACE?


It used to be widely accepted that the son of a NASCAR driver likely would try to follow in his father’s footsteps.

But with Danica Patrick opening new doors, it’s not just sons who want to race anymore. Mike Wallace’s daughter has been racing for years and Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s niece looks like a budding star. Other female drivers are in NASCAR’s development program.

Even five-time champion Jimmie Johnson says he wouldn’t mind seeing his two daughters follow his career path one day.

“It wouldn't bother me a bit,” Johnson said. “I'm not sure my wife would be on board. But really at the end of the day, we want to support our children and have them pursue what they're passionate about and what they enjoy in life.

“I was raised in that environment and so was my wife, and we all think of traditional means of work and providing and starting a family and all that, and we just really want to keep an open mind for our children and help them develop and support what they're passionate about.”

And if that turns out to be racing ...

“I feel so lucky and fortunate that my passion turned into my career, and I know the happiness it's brought me,” Johnson said. “So whatever passions my kids have, that's what I'm going to pursue, and if one of the two girls we have now — who knows if there will be more kids — but if either one of them wants to hold a steering wheel, dad will be happy and ready to go.”


VIDEO OF THE DAY

Darrell Wallace Jr. is not happy after having his truck spun out in practice Thursday night.

Contributors: Bob Pockrass, Jeff Owens

PHOTOS: Dale Earnhardt Jr.