As seen on Speedwaymedia.com August 15, 2007
By Joe Dunn / joe@onpitroad.com
Hendrick Motor Sports officially announced Wednesday that Dale Earnhardt Jr. would not be driving the number 8 car next year. In short Marshall Carlson, General Manager of HMS, stated “Unfortunately, we couldn’t reach a point where the terms made sense, and now we have to move forward with other options.”
So just what does that statement really mean? Well I predicted months ago that the number 8 would not move with Junior and I stand by statement that HMS NEVER wanted the number. This is all BIG Business and the main reason for signing Junior is Dollars, lots and lots of Dollars. Dale is a great driver, but more importantly he gets fans to open their wallets to show their support of him. Look at any Nascar Nextel Cup race and try to avoid seeing the Sea of RED, it’s just not possible.
Junior Nation has spent more money than any other drivers fans on souvenirs over the past several years. One really hard thing for Junior fans to accept is Jeff Gordon as a teammate to their hero. Junior fans have hated no driver more than they have Jeff, and now they have to swallow him as a teammate, a bitter pill for sure.
If junior arrived at Daytona with a red #8, with or without Budweiser, many of those Gordon haters would have refused to buy new shirts and jackets to deny Rick Hendrick a share of their dollars. Eventually, they would have opened up and spent the money, but HMS would have been denied that huge surge of income.
The big media campaign to convince DEI to release the 8 was nothing but a smokescreen, or as I stated before , a PLOY to discredit Teresa Earnhardt and garner supports for Junior teaming up with Gordon. Even Ricky Rachtman jumped on the bandwagon, he needed to try to drum up any kind of race fans he could find, because he sure seems clueless when he starts talking Nascar. Or maybe he’s not clueless and just disregards facts to drum up ratings…I don’t know.
So get ready Junior Nation cause next year Dale Jr. will be sporting Tony the Tiger on the 5 car, cause just like Kellogg’s Corn Flakes, Junior is GREEEEEAAAAAAT!
