Dale Earnhardt Jr 2015 Season Preview
By Richard Tix
For the most part, 2014 was a dream season for Jr. For starters, Jr kicked the season off in style by winning his second Daytona 500 and pretty much locking him into the new Chase because of the new points system.
Dale followed that up by finishing second the next two races at Phoenix and Vegas. After 14 races he had more wins (2) then he had combined from 2009-2013. He had the same amount of wins (2) that he had from 2007-2013. By notching his second win at Pocono it was the first time he had a multiple win season since 2004.
Jr didn't stop at two either, he won four races in total in 2014 on his way to the Chase. The second round of the Chase wasn't kind to Jr and he was left out of the running, but past that he has a great season. He ended with 4 wins, 12 top 5's, and 20 top 10's. All of this was done during Steve Letarte final season as Crew Chief.
Now that the 2015 season is coming up fast the uncertainty still looms as Jr gets ready to take on the season with a new CC for the first time since 2010 (Steve took over in 2011). Maybe the loss of Letarte wont matter much, but most fans just witnessed a pretty great 2014 performance so the thought may linger if they struggle early.
Bold Predictions/2015 Season Expectations:
- After last season Jr Nation is going to be expecting a run at the title again. They got new hope in his chance to finally win a Cup Championship and they wont let the loss of Letarte be an excuse. The best news for this team would be an early season win at Daytona again, but if they don't get that I can see the #88 winning less races than 2014. When they won early it gave them a lot of freedom that other teams didn't have. I still see 1-2 wins, 8-10 top 5's, and 18-20 top 10's. All those stats are down from 2014, yet he could finish higher than 8th in 2015 because of a better Chase performance.
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