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Dale Jr. has support to go his own way
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Earnhardt Jr. has his work cut out for him, but you've got to believe Budweiser is going to follow him. If Budweiser doesn't, there should be a dozen sponsors in line that would be more than happy to share his popularity. As long as he's got the resources and the right people, he can do it. NASCAR racing is about money, but a lot of teams have plenty of money and resources. What's the difference? It's the people.
Unless he has a binding contract, Earnhardt Jr's cousin and crew chief, Tony Eury Jr., would be foolish not to move with Junior. And Junior would be foolish not to take him because it would be one less growing pain that he would have to go through. I can't imagine that Dale Jr. wouldn't like to have his uncle, DEI director of competition Tony Eury Sr., but he's been at DEI since the beginning and will probably want to end his career there.In a small way, I think Junior will respect a lot of things about DEI and not try to haul everyone out of there, but I've got to believe he'll try to take some key people, like Eury Jr., with him.
While he's excited about the future, it's a very bittersweet time for Junior. Dale Earnhardt Sr. built DEI for many reasons. He wanted to build his own racing empire, which he certainly accomplished, but he also built it for his family. Because of Dale Jr.'s notoriety, the other children get lost in the shuffle, but three other kids are involved — Kerry, Kelley and Taylor.
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A lot of things probably factored into the decision to leave DEI. As popular as he is, Junior has only won two races in the last 2 1/4 years. But the fact that Teresa Earnhardt would not give him what he was looking for — majority ownership — obviously is the No. 1 issue. They were just so far apart in communicating with each other, and DEI was not moving in the direction that he felt like he should move. If you stack all of those things on top of each other, that's why he's leaving.
Last December, Teresa Earnhardt questioned Dale Jr's focus, telling the Wall Street Journal, "Right now the ball's in his court to decide on whether he wants to be a NASCAR driver or whether he wants to be a public personality." When I read that comment, I thought the deal was going to end.
Having worked for successful, Cup championship-winning owners Richard Childress and Robert Yates, I know how they operate when there's an issue with one of their key people, especially one of their drivers. Childress and Yates sat down in a room with them. You can hire all the lawyers and all the general managers in the world. When an owner and a driver — especially if they're a stepmom and a stepson — can't sit down without all of these other people and say what they want to do for the future of the company, they need to go their separate ways.
| Speed Mail Larry McReynolds |
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Is DEI going to close the doors and fall in? Probably not, but they've got their work cut out for them. Taking nothing away from the rest of the organization, including the No. 1 and No. 15 Cup cars, when you think about DEI, you think about Dale Earnhardt Jr. In addition to Dale's departure, the Bass Pro Shops sponsorship of the No. 1 car is up at the end of the year.
There are 26 races left in the 2007 season, and if Dale Jr. and DEI lay aside their egos, the No. 8 team stands a strong chance of making the Chase for the Nextel Cup. They're currently sitting in the 12th and final spot in the point standings right now. When drivers have announced their attentions to leave at season's end, I've seen operations that were fine until the end of the deal, but I've also seen teams fall apart and decide that they just need to move on to the future. They're the ones that control it. It's all in their hands. Nobody is going to tell them they've got to make it work or not make it work. The one ace up their sleeve is how close-knit that team is from Tony Jr. to Dale Jr. to the whole package.
FOX race analyst Larry McReynolds has more than 25 years of NASCAR experience as a mechanic, crew chief and broadcaster. He and his fellow Crew Chief Club members take you behind the wall at www.crewchiefclub.com.
"How to Become a Winning Crew Chief" is on bookstore shelves, or you may order your own autographed copy from www.DWStore.com.
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