Earnhardt is in a precarious position in Sprint Cup competition

Meet Dale Earnhardt Jr., Chase Bubble Boy.

Earnhardt is slotted at No. 14 in the Chase grid (and 13th in points) — for the field of 16 drivers competing for the 2016 NASCAR Sprint Cup championship — with eight races left before the field is set, but there are complications. Any top 30 driver below that cutoff who wins a race will knock Earnhardt one notch back.

In a sport that puts a premium on winning these days, Earnhardt is winless in 2016 and has led only four laps since mid-March.

“There was a time earlier in the year when he rattled off quite a few top 10s and a few top fives and it looked like he was in pretty good shape. It’s gone downhill, certainly, “ said Jeff Burton, NBC/NASCAR analyst and a former Cup veteran.

“I don’t want to say panic, but I do sense a high level of concern from within the team. And when you hear him talk, there’s certainly some anxiety.”

It will amp up to high anxiety as the weeks go on, assuming Earnhardt continues trending downward.

Earnhardt has averaged a 21st-place finish in his last four races. That’s exactly where he finished in Daytona a few weeks ago in the Coke Zero 400. And therein is part of the bigger-picture reason to worry.

Super-speedway restrictor-plate tracks are where Earnhardt, much like his late father, used to bank his money. Earnhardt crashed in the Daytona 500 and in Talladega in May. There is one more restrictor-plate pit stop at Talladega, in October, but that won’t matter if he doesn’t qualify for the Chase.

“Going to Daytona and not running well, I think that was a big deal for them,” Burton said. “That took some of the wind out of their sails. ... That put a lot of pressure on everybody. It put a lot of pressure on him. Put a lot of pressure on the team.”

Earnhardt gets it.

“What am I going to do?’’ he said after finishing 13th at Kentucky last weekend. ‘’We’re running as good as we can. It’s either going to be good enough or won’t be enough. I’m not really going to lose any sleep over it, at least at this moment. When we miss the Chase, it’ll be frustrating and disappointing, but we’re going to plan on not doing that. We’re going to plan on making it.”

The flip side is that Junior has won at Bristol, Michigan and Richmond, all among the eight tracks before the cutoff mark (Richmond). But it’s tough to connect the dots with history when current history seems so shaky, especially with the Hendrick Motorsports team struggling as a collective.

“It’s really important to remember that this stuff is not easy,” Burton said. “And I think Dale Jr. fans sometimes have unrealistic expectations.”

The bubble may burst this season. The static noise will not be pleasant.

Austin Dillon does it right

Tip of the day: There are good ways and bad ways to interact with fans.

Bad: Miko Grimes, the wife of Tampa Bay Buccaneers cornerback Brent Grimes, busting out anti-Semitic language on Twitter while critiquing the Jewish owner of her husband’s former team, the Miami Dolphins.

Good: Austin Dillon, cold-calling fans in conjunction with a NASCAR promotion and broadcast partner NBC. It led to a lot of thumbs up on Twitter and elsewhere.

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“It was a lot of fun,” Dillon said. “The guys at NBC are doing a really good job. They had a list of names on there of fans of Austin Dillon and I just started calling them. I couldn’t disguise my voice; it is so country. I have a pretty funny voice every now and then; I just didn’t use it.”

Other drivers, including Kyle Busch, have participated in NBC’s “Phone a Fan” web video, where unsuspecting fans receive calls from their favorite NASCAR drivers. Dillon called a fan named Jackson while posing as a NASCAR market researcher to discuss Dillon’s iconic No. 3 car, haircuts and girls.

“There are a lot of haters out there and to hear a real fan and talk to them on the phone and get the love from them,” Dillon said, “it was pretty special just hearing fans that support you and are proud of what you are doing out there ... and just excited to hear from you. That is what’s fun about it and that is what makes our sport great.”

Allmendinger OK

A.J. Allmendinger isn’t making a pit stop at Indianapolis Motor Speedway for testing this week, but it’s not because of his heavy-impact hit at Kentucky last weekend.

Allmendinger finished 36th in the Quaker State 400 after being caught in two wrecks, the second of which looked nasty. Allmendinger’s left hand and wrist were wrapped during a visit to the track’s care center, but X-rays revealed that nothing was broken.

A spokesperson for the JTG Daugherty Racing said Allmendinger’s team will focus on building cars after a rough stretch. Allmendinger hasn’t finished in the top 10 in two months and ranks 20th in points.

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