Moments Like This Are Why We Love NASCAR...
Sunday night on WLWT’s “Sports Rock,” The guy who calls himself the Box (whose real name escapes me at the moment) said that the reason NASCAR is so popular is because you don’t need an IQ to follow it.
To many, NASCAR fans are just dumb rednecks watching cars drive fast and turn left, waiting for the next crash.
No, my friends, the reason we fans love NASCAR is for moments like the historic one that happened this morning in a garage in North Carolina…
And yes, I know I’m not the NASCAR blogger, but since this story is bound to be all over your TV screens for the next several days, I hope you’ll forgive me…
As you’ve no doubt heard by now, Dale Earnhardt Jr. is leaving DEI (That’s Dale Earnhardt, Inc. for the non-NASCAR fan.) at the end of this season. This, ladies and gentlemen, is HUGE. Personally, I think it’s very sad that Teresa Earnhardt couldn’t give her stepson what he wanted—a majority stake in the company. I believe that’s what Dale Sr. would’ve wanted and now what has she got? You think she’s got Budweiser, or Wrangler, or any of the zillion companies Jr. gets money from on board with her? No way…
Which leads to a very interesting situation. Dale Jr. is the face of NASCAR and its most beloved driver, which means there will be a lot of people giving him a look. However, Jr. said in his press conference this morning that he wants to stick with Chevrolet and he wants to go to an established winning team instead of trying to make it with his own team (although he would go that route if he needed to). In my opinion, that leaves only two possible candidates: Hendrick Motorsports and Richard Childress Racing…
There’s been a lot of love between Jr. and Hendrick in the last few weeks. Jr. drove Kyle Busch’s car a few races back and Jr. has been extremely friendly with Jeff Gordon (much to the chagrin of the Jr. faithful). And how tempting would an offer from this year’s dominant team be—especially a team that has been so dominant with the Car of Tomorrow, which will probably be raced full-time next year?
Very tempting, indeed…Although can you imagine the reaction of the Jr. faithful to him being on the same team as Jeff Gordon? Who would they throw stuff at then?...
But how tempting would it be to drive for Richard Childress, the team where his father became a legend. Because the car owners own the car numbers, Jr. will no doubt lose the #8, but with Richard Childress he could drive the #3—his father’s number. How cool would that be?
Years from now I believe that we’ll look back at today as a key moment in the history of NASCAR—especially when Junior wins a championship with someone else and DEI becomes a shell of what it once was…
Yes, it’s moments like this that make us love NASCAR. But with this story, there are many more moments to come…
Stay tuned…
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