For Earnhardt, no relief from the title expectations

They always expect him to win it.

The belief is always there, every day, every race, every year, regardless of whether or not his results merit such anticipation. Dale Earnhardt Jr. walks through the Sprint Cup garage carrying burdens seen and unseen, from the legacy of his family's name to the ebb and flow of NASCAR's popularity to the unyielding pressure to win. Back in the Chase for the first time in two years? Nice. Snapped that 76-race winless streak at Michigan? Good. But the bigger prize, the one that will both validate and feed his popularity at the same time, is still unrealized. And no matter where he is in the point standings, no matter how well or poorly his car is running, the throngs of Junior Nation expect him to take it.

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That's quite a heavy load for a 33-year-old with 18 career victories on NASCAR's premier series, no matter what organization he's driving for. Sure, Earnhardt has it all -- those rugged good looks, more cash than he could ever spend, and an ability to drive a racecar that's earned him the adoration of millions. But he also drags around the weight of expectation, like a cannonball chained to his leg. The magic is that he's able to handle it with such grace and relative understatement, somehow embracing all that rampant expectancy yet tempering it at the same time.

"You can never live up to those," Earnhardt said when asked about meeting the expectations of his massive fan base. "I wouldn't expect to. I would hope their expectations are super high. Anything short of a championship is not reaching their expectations, I'm sure."

Of course, Earnhardt wants to win the Sprint Cup championship himself. But wanting and expecting are two very different things. Regardless of how this season turns out, Earnhardt's first campaign with powerhouse Hendrick Motorsports will be a rousing success -- he's back in the year-end Chase for the first time since 2006, he's contending for race wins again, he's outrun the painful family drama that swallowed the end of his tenure with Dale Earnhardt Inc. He and crew chief Tony Eury Jr. have shown a promising touch with the new car, and should only get better going forward. We're on the verge of once again seeing the real Junior, the one who finished third in final points in 2003 and won six races the next year, the one who squashes all the short-sighted contrarians who think he's living off his last name.

But is that enough? Can Junior Nation be satisfied with progress and potential? For their driver's sake, let's hope so. With his low-key nature and his lazy North Carolina drawl, Earnhardt can come off as a guy with no worries. But he feels it. When you're NASCAR's most popular driver by a rather wide margin, it would be impossible not to.