Expect a Dale Earnhardt Jr. win soon

Dale Earnhardt Jr. was 15/1 to win at Texas, but finished second.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. on runner-up finish at Texas:

"We finished up there were we should have, and, man, we need a win," said Earnhardt. "We'd love to get a win. I know our fans want a win real bad. Trust me, man, we're all working real hard."

Earnhardt was encouraged by the speed in his car.

"We're running great every week," he said. "So at least that's hopefully fun to watch for you guys. I had a blast inside the car, lot of sliding around, sideways -- good, hard racing. We'll go to the next one, I guess, and try again."

Earnhardt won seven races combined the past two seasons after winning only once during the previous five seasons. His last win was in November at Phoenix, so the span in between his wins is hardly anything to be alarmed about; it's only been eight races without winning.

What is kind of cool to see from Junior is that he now has the confidence to be angry with an eight race gap between wins. He expects to win and contend for them on a regular basis. We didn't see that in his first few years with Hendrick Motorsports.

If we look at what he has done on the three 1.5-mile tracks so far this season, Junior and his millions of fans should be encouraged a win is coming soon. There are still eight more races this season on 1.5-mile tracks. In the first three he was second (Atlanta), eighth (Las Vegas) and second (Texas).

Even though he didn't lead a lap at either Atlanta or Texas, a win is definitely in his near future. The next 1.5-mile track on the schedule is Kansas Speedway on May 7 and at the end of May is the All-Star Race and Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway on consecutive weekends.

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