This season has been a whole new experience for Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Before apparently turning a miserable year around two weeks ago with a third-place finish at Daytona and then solidifying the turnaround with a victory Sunday at Chicagoland Speedway, NASCAR’s most popular driver was at times booed and vilified for leading his DEI team into a losing spiral.

The crew on his revered red No. 8 Chevrolet was jeered on the way out of tracks, and Junior’s possible departure from Dale Earnhardt Inc., the team his father founded, was a subject of much speculation.

Earnhardt’s fall from grace was sudden.

Little E has been a standout since the day he first drove a car in NASCAR’s top stock car series in 1999 – partly because fans of his father, a NASCAR icon killed in a crash in the 2001 Daytona 500, have switched their allegiance to the son and partly because Junior’s talent, hip-hop style and charisma have captured the imagination of younger fans.

And he has given all of them plenty to cheer about, improving each year.

The last two years in particular apparently set the stage for a strong run at the championship this year.

Earnhardt finished third in the points in 2003 and won a career-best six races and finished a very competitive fifth last year – the first season the title was determined by the 10-race playoff-style Chase for the Nextel Cup championship.

But it has turned out to be a mostly disappointing season, thanks at least in part to an ill-advised swap of cars and crewmen with DEI teammate Michael Waltrip.

“I don’t think the boos bother me,” Earnhardt said after the 16th victory of his career. “That kind of solidifies me in the sport because if everybody cheers for you, people feel like you never pay your dues. So if I’m getting booed a little bit, I’m paying my dues a little bit.”

He has certainly paid some dues in 2005.

Until that strong run July 2 at Daytona, Earnhardt had just five top-10 finishes in 16 starts. Until he led the final 11 laps at Chicagoland, Junior had been out front for just five laps all season.

Winning, especially the way he did – with spectacular pit work all day and a two-tire pit stop that gave him track position at the end – was a real boost to Earnhardt and his crew.

As tough a year as it has been, though, Earnhardt says it hasn’t all been bleak as the team has tried to work its way out of the disappointing slump.

“This is the honest truth: As bad as some of the finishes are that we’ve had – as hard as they are to stomach sometimes and to understand – I’ve had a good time,” Earnhardt said. “I’ve had fun with this team.

“I never anticipated them being as good a bunch of guys as they are. They all like each other and get along. They don’t put me in a bad position by putting me in the middle of a dispute. They are all giving their best and I feel like part of them.”

A big part of that positive attitude has been interim crew chief Steve Hmiel, who left his post as DEI’s technical director in May to replace Pete Rondeau, who failed to spark a real chemistry with Earnhardt after switching from Waltrip’s No. 15 team over the winter.

Waltrip hasn’t run any better than Earnhardt most of this season, but it did seem that he quickly developed a rapport with new crew chief Tony Eury Jr., Earnhardt’s cousin and longtime car chief.

Thanks to the success of the past two races, Earnhardt is back in the race for the Chase, which will include the top 10 and any other drivers within 400 points of the leader after the first 26 races.

Heading into today’s race at New Hampshire International Speedway – the 19th of the season – Junior is 13th in the standings, 115 points out of 10th and 491 points behind series leader Jimmie Johnson.

And despair suddenly has turned to optimism.

“About a week or two ago – right before Daytona – I decided to quit worrying about making the Chase, and to not let all the criticism and opinions of everybody bother me,” Earnhardt said. “I kind of went back to old-school thinking, the way you do when you’re a rookie and you’re trying to focus on every lap, every turn, every day.

“I have all the confidence in the world in my team and in Steve. Hopefully, we can keep doing what we did at Chicago. If we can, maybe we’ll make the Chase.”