Now that Dale Earnhardt Jr. has matched his father in number of Daytona 500 victories, it begs this question: Can he take the next step?

Does Junior have what it takes to become a Cup champion like Dale Earnhardt Sr., or is he destined to be known as a great superspeedway driver and nothing else?

No doubt he owes much of his popularity to his father, but the name alone doesn't guarantee success (see Earnhardt, Kerry).

The elder Earnhardt didn't hand Junior the keys to the castle. Junior had to work his way up through the dirt tracks and smaller local and national series, then the Busch Series, where his two championships seem to be forgotten by those who would rather hate than recognize Junior's talents.

And to the conspiracy theorists, NASCAR has too much money and credibility to lose if it ever came out that races were fixed. To attempt such a feat would be suicide considering the exorbitant amount of money sponsors spend to support the sport. Not to mention that crews work too hard and too long to let NASCAR throw a race.

In reality, though he still has room to improve at certain tracks, the only thing keeping Earnhardt Jr. from winning a championship is the number of talented drivers with top-notch teams in the Nextel Cup Series, especially under the new points system.

It will be harder to win a title in the sense that before, a driver could build a hefty 200-point lead entering the final 10 races of the season and, barring catastrophe, likely cruise to the title. Or at worst, have to fend off one or two drivers down the stretch. Now there will be no such thing as a 200-point lead with 10 races left.

The benefit is that Earnhardt Jr. could struggle early, but with a late surge be good enough to make the top 10 with 10 races left. All of a sudden, when the points are reset for the championship chase, he's right back in the thick of things, when in the old way he might have found himself 300 or more points behind with little or no hope of winning it all.

So whether Earnhardt Jr. can win a title, there is no doubt. He should find himself solidly in the top 10 on a yearly basis. He has the talent. He has a strong team. And -- superspeedway dominance aside -- he's improving on all the other track styles across the board.

Will he win a title? That's a little tougher to say. Maybe not this year, but before his career is over, a championship for Earnhardt Jr. seems like a logical conclusion. Seven? Don't count on it.