Teresa Earnhardt should be tarred and feathered. She's acting like an ex-wife rather than a widow.
Read On:
(from the Nascar.com website)
Junior: Deal for 8 scuttled by Teresa's bid for control
By David Caraviello, NASCAR.COM
August 19, 2007
02:26 PM EDT
type size: + -BROOKLYN, Mich. -- Dale Earnhardt Jr. had seen this movie before, and he knew how it was going to end. He wanted the 8. He went after the 8. But deep down, he knew he would never get it.
"Personally, I sort of planned for this," he said. "I've been in these negotiations with the same person before, and they've never worked out in our favor. I knew this was the way it was going to be. I just didn't have the guts to tell my fans. They were holding out and hoping it would work out. I didn't have the guts to tell them it was just a waste of time hoping that would happen."
"If I was to get the 8, and allow Teresa to have limited control of it, I'd still have to deal with her, and that wasn't what I wanted"
Dale Earnhardt Jr.That much became evident this week, when Hendrick Motorsports announced that Earnhardt's trademark car number will not follow NASCAR's most popular driver from Dale Earnhardt Inc. to his new home for 2008. (read more) Despite the work of his sister and manager, Kelley Earnhardt Elledge, despite the help of DEI president Max Siegel, the quest was scuttled for the same reason Earnhardt Jr. was unable to obtain an ownership share of the organization his late father founded.
Teresa Earnhardt refused to give up control. Earnhardt Jr. said Saturday at Michigan International Speedway that his stepmother, who owns DEI, wanted a share of licensing revenues from the number. Earnhardt Jr. even offered to return the No. 8 to DEI after he retired from driving, but ultimately negotiations fell apart in an episode that further underscored the growing bitterness of the division between the driver and his father's widow.
"I'm not going to sit here and get personal about this. The personal stuff is way far away from the racetrack. It's upsetting as hell, and unfortunate. But you know, that's just what happens sometimes. Like I say, I kind of had an idea that we were going to come down this road and have to take another turn. I knew this was the way it was going to happen. I'm not really all that surprised," he said.
"I knew I wasn't going to get the number a long time ago, but you wait and wait and wait. Kelley is working, trying to talk to Max, and Max is trying to help. Max tried his butt off to try and make it work, to talk some sense into [Teresa]. But she either feels too personal about the number, or the rift between me and her is too personal. I can totally understand. If I were in her shoes, I would probably be inclined to keep the number myself. But I will say that Max tried really, really hard. We had a deal that if we did get the number, I'd get him a set of golf clubs made by adidas. Unfortunately, he won't be getting his clubs."
History wasn't on Earnhardt's side. While car numbers are owned by NASCAR, they're distributed to car owners, and traditionally stay in the same shop even if a driver leaves. That's what happened at Roush Fenway Racing, which kept the No. 6 even after Mark Martin, the driver who made it famous, moved on.
"I know it is standard procedure for the owners to build equity in the number. That's what stays with them," said Martin, who now drives part-time for DEI. "The drivers take their superstardom wherever they may, when you make that choice to go. Dale Earnhardt won the rookie of the year and his first championship in the No. 2, then raced the No. 15, and then he raced the No. 8 on [Busch] cars all through the '80s. If you do the history instead of look at the last five or seven years, if you do the history and present it, then there's a whole different thing to it besides race fans.
"Dale Jr. made a choice to make a change in his career, to change his path and to give it a new start and to go put himself in a position to go win his first championship, and I think that's great. But that also came with the chance that the number would stay with Dale Earnhardt Inc., where it has been since 1984."
Jeff Gordon can imagine a similar reaction from car owner Rick Hendrick -- Earnhardt Jr.'s new boss beginning next season -- if he asked to take his trademark No. 24 with him to another team.
"If I said, 'I'd like to take the 24 with me,' he would laugh at me," Gordon said. "You know, I understand if Teresa wants to keep the 8 and use the 8. I think it's going to make it very tough for any other driver to get behind the wheel of that car, and I think if she doesn't use the 8, I think that it's really a shame that he wasn't able to get it. But as long as she used it, she thinks there's as much a tie to it with DEI than anything, then I understand why they wouldn't want to let go of it."
But it also has a tie to Earnhardt Jr., one much deeper and more personal than the numeral on apparel worn by his fans. He chose the 8 because his grandfather Ralph raced it, because of its significance within the family history. He intimated Saturday that his new number at Hendrick will have an 8 somewhere in it. "Hold on. Hang tight," he said, when asked about all those fans with No. 8 tattoos.
"I'm definitely going to look at some 80s and things like that. That's just common sense," he said. "I want a number that I'm going to like, and it's going to be a number I like and one I design. I'll design the shape and the look. It will be mine, and we'll build a new identity with that. Starting with such a clean page next year anyway, maybe it's for the best, sort of a lesson in disguise to make that clean break.
"Because when I walk away from DEI, I wanted no ties whatsoever. If I was to get the 8, and allow Teresa to have limited control of it, I'd still have to deal with her, and that wasn't what I wanted. We have to let the 8 go, and we have to get something new."
SO WADDYA THINK...WILL NUMBER 8 STUFF BE WORTH A FORTUNE OR NOTHING?
Do you think Budweiser sales will go down without their advertising on Dale Jr.'s car? (I hope so - they should of stuck by him too!)
I'D LOVE TO HEAR READER'S COMMENTS REGARDING WHAT YOU THINK ABOUT THIS QUESTION!
For Now, LUV and GOOD LUCK TO JUNIOR AT THE MIS RACE, RESCHEDULED FOR MONDAY AT NOON, on ESPN or locally on Radio 103.7 FM (for fans that don't have Cable TV, like me!)
GO JIMMIE GO AND GO JUNIOR GO, XOXO TTownRobin
WISH I WAS THERE!
MORE - HOPE U DON'T GET BORED:
When everything is all said and done, Max Siegel's job is to work in the best interest of Dale Earnhardt Inc., not Dale Earnhardt Jr....
DEI coming to the end of search for new driver No. 8
By David Caraviello, NASCAR.COM
August 19, 2007
BROOKLYN, Mich. -- Dale Earnhardt Jr. won't drive a No. 8 car, but someone at Dale Earnhardt Inc. will. The Nextel Cup organization hopes to have that matter settled in about a week, team president Max Siegel said Sunday.
"We're trying to figure out who will fit into our driver lineup that will complement the entire team and where we want to go as a company," Siegel said at Michigan International Speedway, where the 3M Performance 400 was postponed by rain until Monday. "Right now, I want to put the most confident driver possible in the car."
Whoever that is -- Siegel wouldn't say whether Mark Martin, currently driving part-time in a DEI car, is a possibility -- will face the unenviable task of succeeding NASCAR's most popular driver in a No. 8 vehicle that's become as synonymous with Earnhardt as his last name and ever-present scruff.
Earnhardt wanted to take his car number with him to Hendrick Motorsports, but said negotiations toward that end broke down because stepmother and DEI owner, Teresa Earnhardt, wanted to retain a slice of licensing revenues. (read more)
Siegel played the role of intermediary, trying to broker an agreement between two sides who have become increasingly bitter ever since Earnhardt Jr.'s bid for majority ownership in his late father's company was rebuffed.
"I don't want to get into what broke down. The fact of the matter is, Dale Jr. knows exactly how I feel about the situation, about him. I'm here to represent this company and to work hard to make sure that Dale Earnhardt Inc. is a strong, healthy company for the next 25 years. The reality of the situation is, when you have any sudden negotiations, the best you can do is have an open dialogue. I've been open and very transparent with him," Siegel said.
"It's a very complicated situation. Not only the NASCAR angle of it, but the emotional charge of this whole situation tells you how complex the discussions are, and I have no interest in reopening those discussions and debating them in the media. I understand his frustration and his disappointment. We share that disappointment in the way the future is going. But again, we're going to support him and we're going to do everything we can to represent Dale Earnhardt Inc. in a positive way."
Earnhardt Jr. said he felt all along that Teresa wouldn't part with the number. He's been considering replacements, likely something in the 80s so the 8 will remain as part of his identity. He hopes that his fans will be able to move forward once his new number and sponsor are revealed.
"There's great communication going back and forth, and a lot of great conversations about what our options are and what not," he said Sunday. "We definitely were planning to have to go in this direction, so we got our game together and whenever we decide and whatever we decide, I think that I'm going to be excited about it. I think my fans will be excited about it, and we just kind of [need to] get over the idea that we're not going to be No. 8 no more. I'm fine with that, and hopefully my fans can do the same and we'll build on a new identity."
Siegel said DEI wouldn't have kept the No. 8 if the team had no interest in using it, and added that the keeping primary sponsor Budweiser -- believed to be leaning toward Kasey Kahne for 2008 -- was still a possibility as of Sunday. But he understands the challenge facing DEI, which has been painted as a villain by Earnhardt Jr.'s legion of fans, and next season will have to sell a new driver in what could be awkward surroundings.
"I certainly see it as a tremendous challenge. But every one of the drivers who stepped into this sport started from nothing," he said.
"Unfortunately, [Earnhardt Jr.] didn't stay. I think what I want to do is to continue to build upon the high standard and the principals and the legacy that Dale Sr. and Teresa Earnhardt built this company on. We're going to get competitive drivers in the car, we're going to do everything we can to represent our commercial partners, and to win championships."
The DEI of next season will feature four Nextel Cup cars -- the Nos. 01, 1, 8 and 15 -- and possibly two Busch entries, depending on sponsorship. Siegel said DEI is "well down the road" to re-signing with Chevrolet, which is in the process of extending contracts with its NASCAR entries. And he looks forward to the day when the organization is judged by its performance on the track, and not family power struggles occurring off it.
"Hopefully five years from now, people will say nice things about DEI," Siegel said, "and this will have been a part of our growth process."
http://www.nascar.com/2007/news/headlines/cup/05/11/dearnhardtjr.future.archive/index.html
