Associated Press

Dale Earnhardt Jr. will start 39th in the 43-car field for tonight's Sprint Cup race at Lowe's Motor Speedway. Earnhardt expressed his disappointment on Friday.

CONCORD, N.C. -- Dale Earnhardt Jr. admits he's "about to the end of my rope'' with his struggles this season and called his qualifying performance Thursday night "ridiculous.''

The end of what could be his worst season in NASCAR's Sprint Cup series weighs heavily on the sport's most popular driver.

He enters tonight's race at Lowe's Motor Speedway 22nd in the points standings -- he's never finished worse than 19th in a full season. He has finished in the top 10 as many times (five) as he's failed to finish a race. He's winless in his last 51 races and has one victory in his last 128 Cup starts.

Qualifying Thursday night proved to be another painful experience. He'll start 39th in the 43-car field.

"We don't know why,'' Earnhardt said of his woes in qualifying Thursday. "We looked ridiculous. It's like really encouraging one day and the next day it's equally discouraging and that gets really old. I'm about to the end of my rope on it.''

Asked what he could do, Earnhardt struggled to answer.

"I've been riding it out, but there comes a point where you don't want to ride it out no more,'' he said Friday. "You've just had enough. It's been a long year.

"The highs have not been very high and the lows have been terribly low. That's hard to want to get back up and try again the next week when you take such a beating. I don't know what else to do.''

Earnhardt spoke in a soft tone, his head drooping at times in the 12-minute session with reporters.

Earnhardt's struggles have been perplexing this season. His Hendrick Motorsports teammates Jimmie Johnson, Mark Martin and Jeff Gordon are challenging for the championship and Tony Stewart and Ryan Newman -- who use some Hendrick equipment -- also are in the Chase.

While Earnhardt has had some stronger runs at times in the last few weeks, he's not finished races well. He has two top-10 finishes in the last five months.

"I don't know what's next,'' Earnhardt said. "I was thinking about that [Thursday] night.''

A key question is whether Lance McGrew will remain as Earnhardt's crew chief. McGrew began working with Earnhardt in June, shortly after Tony Eury Jr. was removed from that role.

Earnhardt says he hasn't talked to car owner Rick Hendrick about McGrew's status beyond this season. Earnhardt admits he needs a strong crew chief.

"Whoever I work with needs to be a dictator,'' he said.

Asked if McGrew was that type of person, Earnhardt said: "I'm not saying that. I don't think I'm the guy to leave that decision up to because I wouldn't make the right one.

"There's probably better people to make it, especially in the organization. There's a lot of smart people around there. I'm just waiting for somebody to make the call. Just tell me. Put the [dang] team together and say this is what you've got and this is what you're going to do next year. Just kind of waiting on that to happen.''

Earnhardt's woes have lasted so long that he admits he's no longer second-guessing himself.

"I've passed all of that,'' he said. "I'm just coming to the race track and climbing into the car and if it goes fast, it goes fast.''

Even with races the next few weeks at Martinsville, Talladega and Texas -- tracks where he's had success in the past -- Earnhardt is not encouraged.

"I just want to run better,'' he said. "We're not running good enough. Even when we're creeping inside the top 10 like we were last week, it ain't good enough.

"Rick has put me in a great position, but I haven't made the most of it, or, for whatever reason, we're just not getting it done.''