BROOKLYN, Mich. -- If it isn't time to start counting again, it's getting close.

When Dale Earnhardt Jr. won at the LifeLock 400 at Michigan International Speedway this past June, it broke a 76-race winless streak in points races that had stretched across more than two full years. The victory was greeted with a generous combination of relief and jubilation as Earnhardt scored his first career victory in the No. 88 Chevrolet he now drives for Hendrick Motorsports.

“

Starting here, we will start to see some improvement and start a run like we had been on at the start of the year. Like we are capable of doing.

”

DALE EARNHARDT JR.

But that was June, seven races ago.

OK, so some of us have started counting again, as unfair as that might seem. Such are the expectations when your last name is Earnhardt and you drive for the man named Hendrick.

"That is part of being in this sport, man," Earnhardt said Friday at MIS, just before he went out and qualified fourth for this Sunday's second race of the season at the track, the 3M Performance 400 (watch video). "You know, you have to live up to all expectations ... and you get paid a lot of money to do it."

Since winning the June race, Earnhardt hasn't lived up to expectations at all. In the seven races since, he has finished in the top 10 only once -- taking eighth in the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona on July 5. He hasn't exactly been horrible in the other six races, finishing 12th three times. And he led a total of 122 laps in the seven races combined, leading at least one in five of them.

But his 22nd-place finish last weekend on the road course at Watkins Glen dropped him from second to fourth in points, and left much of the racing world wondering if his title hopes are beginning to slip away even before the Chase to the Sprint Cup commences.

Earnhardt's teammates at Hendrick Motorsports are quick to come to the defense of Junior and his cousin crew chief, Tony Eury Jr.

"They've been consistent all year long and continue to be consistent," Jeff Gordon said. "I would really like to see them -- as high up in the points as they've been at times -- I'd like to see them going out there ... leading more laps and being a little more dominant. But I really don't feel like they've lost anything."

Two-time defending points champion Jimmie Johnson said that it's obvious the No. 88 team isn't as sharp now as it appeared to be coming into the last Michigan race. (Continued)