Meet Dale Earnhardt Jr., Chase Bubble Boy.
This is not a good or a funny thing, unlike the classic Seinfeld episode involving a crass selfish jerk who lived in quarantine because of an immune deficiency. Hijinks ensued.
Earnhardt Jr., much like Seinfeld back in the day, is Must See TV. That gets us back to the dicey predicament should the sport's most popular driver fail to qualify for the field of 16 drivers competing for the 2016 NASCAR Sprint Cup championship.
Earnhardt is slotted at No. 14 in the Chase grid (and 13th in points) 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 further back.
In a sport that puts a premium on winning these days, NASCAR's Favorite Son 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 5s 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 Jr. 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 Jr., much like his late daddy, used to bank his money. Earnhardt Jr. crashed in the Daytona 500 and again 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."
Junior 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 past 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.
