It's official. Junior has gone to "the other side". This morning it was announced Dale Earnhardt Junior will be leaving DEI for HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS. A sad day in NASCAR history when an angel moves into hell. I'm not sure I can handle Jr. being Jeff "Rainbows" Gordon's teammate.
Word is Earnhardt will be replacing Kyle Busch.
I don't have anything against Hendrick himself. Hell, I've bought a car off of one of his dealerships. At least he doesn't sell Fords. I despise all his drivers, especially Gordon and Kyle Busch. I agree with local reporters who call Hendrick Motorsports the Yankees of NASCAR.
The way I understand it though, Budwiser sponsors Jr, not the DEI #8 car. I've also heard rumors that he'll drive a Wranglers Jeans Monte Carlo. Who knows.
Signing out from the home of NASCAR.
Quote from: stillbre on June 13, 2007, 12:35:24 PM
I don't have anything against Hendrick himself. Hell, I've bought a car off of one of his dealerships. At least he doesn't sell Fords. I despise all his drivers, especially Gordon and Kyle Busch. I agree with local reporters who call Hendrick Motorsports the Yankees of NASCAR.
The way I understand it though, Budwiser sponsors Jr, not the DEI #8 car. I've also heard rumors that he'll drive a Wranglers Jeans Monte Carlo. Who knows.
Signing out from the home of NASCAR.
However, I believe that the Budweiser contract is with DEI, regardless of Junior. Hence, the sponsor must be let out of the contract by DEI. You know his stepmother won't let that fly. And I hope he does end up driving with Wrangler on the side. Now if only he could have a 3 on there too, things would be as they were intended.
At the news conference today the 1st question asked was "Will this hurt Nascar?" Hendrick answered, "no". In my opinion, yes!!!
Like from the previous post, they also mentioned something to the fact that Hendrick is like the owner of the New York Yankees. Having all the good players and money. Great comparison. ;D
Is it just me or is it hard to watch a full Nascar race anymore. Don't get me wrong, but it's just not the same. I used to make sure I was home every Saturday night/Sunday for the races, but anymore I could careless. What is happening??? ???
Nascrap is going downhill in a handbasket. Lets just stick with the dirt racing, that's how it started for some drivers. As they say, blacktop is to get to the track, dirt is for racing on. ;)
~Mike
Rumblings were rampant that Rick is sick of Kyle's attitude and approach. Chances are he'll end up at Guinn Racing. An inside source had said that Junior had been in talks with Guinn until Hendrick weighed the options and found it would be a better move to pick Junior up and have the two most popular drivers in the sport in his stable. It's a good move all around because Junior will have a lot more resources at his disposal than he currently does at D.E.I. Theresa may be the face of the company, but they try to keep it all in the family with the Eurys. Theresa is nothing more than a driver's daughter that caught a break when she met Dale. As for the sponsorship deal I beleive both DEI and Bud have outs built into their contracts. Bud wants to keep their name with Junior, since they would not be happy with any other face associated with their name and mass recognition of both names together. There are other things that have been in the works with Theresa that would keep them associated without a driver sponsorship from other things I've been told. I don't know how things will shake out but it will be interesting to watch.
I've pretty much lost interest in NASCAR. I still enjoy going to the race but rarely will sit down for an entire race on Sunday. My loss of interest pretty much coincided with Dale Sr's death but it was slowly waning before that. Growing up I loved to watch guys like Harry Gant, Bill Elliot, Terry Labonte, and Ernie Ervin. Rob Moroso, Alan Kuwiki, and Davey Allison were a couple of my favorites before their passing.
My aunt has every NASCAR race since about 1978 on tape. I love to sit and watch them with my uncle when I go back home to Kentucky.
You've gotta wonder how this is going to work. You've got (arguably) the most popular driver in the series who also is the least productive of the team where championships are concerned. I don't know how it'll all shake out, but I'd hate to have to referee between those drivers. I doubt either of the two existing drivers would take Junior getting top billing without a fight.
'course, that's why Hendrick pays himself the big bucks instead of me.