Just in time for Talladega, it appears, the folks at Dale Earnhardt Inc. have apparently figured out how to race again.

Michael Waltrip doggedly chased Kurt Busch to the checkered flag last Saturday at Phoenix International Raceway, finishing second for his second straight solid run in the No. 15 Chevrolet.

Going into the previous race at Texas, Waltrip was 30th in the Nextel Cup standings. Going into Sunday’s Aaron’s 499 at Talladega, he’s 18th.

Three races into the season, Dale Earnhardt Inc. teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr. was 27th in the points. But in the past four races, the No. 8 Chevrolet has finished fourth, 13th, ninth and fourth and Earnhardt Jr. is now tied for 12th in the standings with Dale Jarrett.

“I’m just really proud of everyone wearing a DEI uniform tonight,” Earnhardt Jr. said after the race at Phoenix, speaking of the team that has been the focus of great scrutiny and conjecture since the start of 2005.

Before this season, Waltrip and Earnhardt Jr. basically switched teams. The cars and crew that carried Earnhardt Jr.’s No. 8 colors are now with Waltrip, while Earnhardt Jr. is now with the cars and crew that bore Waltrip’s colors in 2004.

With a pair of top-five finishes in their pockets from Phoenix, Waltrip and Earnhardt Jr. now head to the 2.66-mile Talladega Superspeedway that has been their collective playground in recent years. But there’s no gloating going on from within the DEI camp — at least not yet.

“You all have to write whatever you have to write,” Waltrip said to the media after his second-place finish last week. “Your opinions are yours and you share them with thousands of people. I’ve been criticized enough where you all can’t hurt me.

“You can’t write anything that’s going to make my day any worse. And you can’t all of a sudden tell me I am smart and great and make me feel any better. I didn’t believe you when I you said I (was bad) and I’m not going to believe you when you say I’m great. I am just going to keep on being me.”

Switching teams with Earnhardt Jr., the sport’s most popular and most visible figure, was bound to put Waltrip in the spotlight this season, of course.

Frankly, that’s a position that Waltrip has grown accustomed to. Two years ago, about a third of the way through the Cup season, team officials let it be known that Waltrip needed to pick up his performance to retain his job. Last year, it was Earnhardt Jr. who basically said the same thing. This year, before the season began, Waltrip himself said that if he didn’t contend for a spot in the Chase for the Nextel Cup he figured he’d be out of the DEI picture by 2006.

“If you want to know the funniest thing that happened,” Waltrip said, “Whenever they decided they were going to switch teams, Richie (Gilmore, director of motorsports at DEI) said that (crew chief) Tony (Eury) Jr. said, ‘We can win with anybody. We’ll take Michael.’

“I said, ‘If you can win with anybody I’m your guy!’ And they’re right, they’re that talented and that smart.”

Eury was car chief for Earnhardt Jr. last year. Pete Rondeau, Waltrip’s crew chief when 2004 ended, now is crew chief for Earnhardt Jr.

Between them, Waltrip and Earnhardt Jr. have won 11 of the 17 races using carburetor restrictor plates at Daytona and Talladega since the start of the 2001 season.