Bump-Drafts.com

Have you ever played on a team where you down a good ways with little time left to make up the defecit? If you have, then you know where the #8 Budweiser Chevy team of Dale Earnhardt, Jr. has been operating since about the time Kurt Busch and Company began to pick up the pace with about five races to go before the Chase was locked in.
I’d liken it to a football DOWN SIX with two minutes left. Imagine you’re Junior, and you have the ball. First and ten at your own 25. You can make it down field, but it won’t be easy. This was about when Junior finished 42nd at Watkins Glen. Akin to being sacked. It’s 2nd down and 20 at the 15. Ouch!
It’s O.K. because you’ve still got 3 downs to work with. On each succeeding play, you whittle down yardage, but still no first down, and you’re no where near the end zone. Since Watkins, Junior has finished 12th, 5th and 5th. For all intents and purposes, Dale Earnhardt, Junior is facing a 4th and 10 at his own 25 and we’ve got about :30 left in the game.
It all comes down to one play.
The odds are darn near impossible. 75 yards is a lot of ground to cover in one fell swoop. And yet, there have been touchdowns scored from further out, some starting as far back as the other end zone. Now keep up with me here, race fans, because I will translate this over in one minute. I just wanna say as a Denver Broncos football fan, I lived for comebacks, thanks to the skills and heart of one John Albert Elway. As long as he was my quarterback, there was always hope as long as the boys in orange and blue had the ball and there was time on the clock. Now if I were Teresa Earnhardt, I’d be calling a come back king like Elway, or Joe Montana or even Reggie Jackson, or maybe even Curt Schilling from those crazy 2004 Boston Red Sox to channel a little pep talk Junior’s way. But back to reality, though Teresa is not the evil one her detractors make her out to be, there can be no doubt, Junior has no interest in his step-mom’s involvement right now in any way, shape, or form. Heck, even calling up the coach of Junior’s beloved Redskins could prove inspirational. Oh wait……I think Coach Gibbs might be rooting for a black #11 Chevy, and that kinda chunky guy in the orange #20 car. Sorry, Pal.
Back to the story, it has been done. There is a ridiculously small chance that the #8 Bud car go on to nail down the #12 spot in the Chase. Lil’ “E” has run well in Richmond, and you can see that he’s run an inspired race in Fontana and Bristol. Somebody else has done all the math, and I won’t bore you with re-hashing it here, other than to say that Dale Earnhardt, Jr. will have to run the best race he’s run all year from green flag to checkered to even stand a chance. And he has to do it from the 21st position with a car hat has not run well in practice, and with a driver that is reportedlly not feeling well.
Oh, and then there’s Kevin Harvick.
This is not real easy for me to say, but then it gives you an idea of how much I respect the driver of #29 Chevy to say that Harvick is a force to be reckoned with. Happy has had demons of his own on the race track this year (ahem, only one was named Juan Pablo Montoya), and my own opinion is his best moments of 2007 are way behind him- with his Daytona 500 win and the All-Star weekend prize. He’s had some back luck, some really uncooperative cars, and there are still days his temper gets the best of him. Nonetheless, I wouldn’t put up money against Kevin Harvick. He’s just too good. And he starts 8 positions ahead of the beloved driver in red.
What a story a Junior comeback would make- especially considering that (in the eyes of Earnhardt nation) the cars from the Evil Empire of Hendrick are running up front. Maming in the Cashe in Junior’s final season with the company his father founded would certainly be poetic justice. Hollywood would snap this story up in five seconds. We’d all be talking about it for the next 50 years- just like we do now about the inspirational driving of Harvick and Junior in the wake of the passing of The Intimidator in 2001.
Miracles still happen.
Will they tomorrow?
Speaking as a fan, I hope so.
Tune in tomorrow to find out.