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Dale Earnhardt Jr. Cup Team Owner?
By: Gregg A. Shultz- RaceFanVote.com
With the recent announcement that NASCAR will be implementing a COT for the Nationwide
Series mid-season in 2009, some interesting developments are occurring with Dale
Earnhardt Jr. He may become a Cup team owner instead.
As quoted by him, “If NASCAR makes us go to a COT in the Nationwide Series I might as
well move up to Cup because it’ll cost the same money to do it and Cup pays better.” As an
example the Nationwide Series total purse at Lowe’s was 1.2 million versus over 6 million for
the Cup event. Why spend mega dollars to run a nationwide team when you can do the
same thing in Cup and make more money for your efforts in both winnings and sponsor
contributions?
Hendrick has affiliation with his Nationwide team, but Jr. owns it. I guess that it wouldn’t be
any different than what his father did while driving for Childress and owning DEI. Could the
legions of fans wrap their arms around the idea of him being a Cup team owner? They can if
they realize with calm resolution that he will probably never win 7 championships or equal
the number of wins that his father had. It’s a different day and a different era and greatness
from Junior may come from a different avenue.
It’s no secret that Dale Jr. has ten times the resources to work with than his daddy did
when he started DEI. Throw in the almost guaranteed support from Hendrick who is always
looking for some way to expand his operations and you have all of the makings of the next
super-team with a super-owner. It makes perfect sense; he already has the shop, the
drivers, personnel, knowledge and can probably single-handedly secure more sponsor
dollars than any other driver/owner in history above even Michael Waltrip. It would probably
be the first time that we saw the car owner in all of the sponsor’s commercials with the
driver standing to the side.
The way that the JR Motorsports cars were running at Charlotte in the Nationwide race, you
have to figure that he is doing something right. When Junior was passed by Keselowski for
2nd he keyed the radio and said “that’s cool, that’s one of my cars”. He was calling the
shots from the driver’s seat all night long communicating with the team with advice for
Keselowski in what his car was doing when he passed instead of his own car. That wasn’t Jr.
the driver, that was Jr. the car owner talking. It’s a role that he’s not just taken on, but is
good at.
With early speculations, it’s easy to make a big deal out of nothing, but it still remains to be
seen if the talk was just as a comparative statement or of actual consideration of Dale
Earnhardt Jr. to start his own Cup Team. It was something that he was open about doing at
some point down the road and with the new Nationwide Series rule it may spur him on to do
it sooner rather than later.
It’s one of those deals that just comes up from nowhere as his main focus for the past year
was determining who he was going to drive for and all of the details that followed. No doubt
some of Rick Hendrick’s attitude and business savvy is rubbing off on him and Junior
probably sees it more as a reality now than he ever did when he was at DEI, where he would
have never been allowed to do such a thing. Stay Tuned!
As always we welcome your input by voting on the poll question below and submitting your
comments as well.
Happy Holiday Weekend To Everyone!
By: Gregg A. Shultz- RaceFanVote.com
With the recent announcement that NASCAR will be implementing a COT for the Nationwide
Series mid-season in 2009, some interesting developments are occurring with Dale
Earnhardt Jr. He may become a Cup team owner instead.
As quoted by him, “If NASCAR makes us go to a COT in the Nationwide Series I might as
well move up to Cup because it’ll cost the same money to do it and Cup pays better.” As an
example the Nationwide Series total purse at Lowe’s was 1.2 million versus over 6 million for
the Cup event. Why spend mega dollars to run a nationwide team when you can do the
same thing in Cup and make more money for your efforts in both winnings and sponsor
contributions?
Hendrick has affiliation with his Nationwide team, but Jr. owns it. I guess that it wouldn’t be
any different than what his father did while driving for Childress and owning DEI. Could the
legions of fans wrap their arms around the idea of him being a Cup team owner? They can if
they realize with calm resolution that he will probably never win 7 championships or equal
the number of wins that his father had. It’s a different day and a different era and greatness
from Junior may come from a different avenue.
It’s no secret that Dale Jr. has ten times the resources to work with than his daddy did
when he started DEI. Throw in the almost guaranteed support from Hendrick who is always
looking for some way to expand his operations and you have all of the makings of the next
super-team with a super-owner. It makes perfect sense; he already has the shop, the
drivers, personnel, knowledge and can probably single-handedly secure more sponsor
dollars than any other driver/owner in history above even Michael Waltrip. It would probably
be the first time that we saw the car owner in all of the sponsor’s commercials with the
driver standing to the side.
The way that the JR Motorsports cars were running at Charlotte in the Nationwide race, you
have to figure that he is doing something right. When Junior was passed by Keselowski for
2nd he keyed the radio and said “that’s cool, that’s one of my cars”. He was calling the
shots from the driver’s seat all night long communicating with the team with advice for
Keselowski in what his car was doing when he passed instead of his own car. That wasn’t Jr.
the driver, that was Jr. the car owner talking. It’s a role that he’s not just taken on, but is
good at.
With early speculations, it’s easy to make a big deal out of nothing, but it still remains to be
seen if the talk was just as a comparative statement or of actual consideration of Dale
Earnhardt Jr. to start his own Cup Team. It was something that he was open about doing at
some point down the road and with the new Nationwide Series rule it may spur him on to do
it sooner rather than later.
It’s one of those deals that just comes up from nowhere as his main focus for the past year
was determining who he was going to drive for and all of the details that followed. No doubt
some of Rick Hendrick’s attitude and business savvy is rubbing off on him and Junior
probably sees it more as a reality now than he ever did when he was at DEI, where he would
have never been allowed to do such a thing. Stay Tuned!
As always we welcome your input by voting on the poll question below and submitting your
comments as well.
Happy Holiday Weekend To Everyone!
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| Submit your comments about the story or the topic. Please no rude or defamatory comments. Addressing other poster's comments will be edited if deemed to be insulting or rude. |
I think that Junior would make an
awesome cup team owner. He knows the
cars and sees it from the side of a driver
and not just some stroker out there
turning laps to keep the sponsors happy.
Jim Star
awesome cup team owner. He knows the
cars and sees it from the side of a driver
and not just some stroker out there
turning laps to keep the sponsors happy.
Jim Star
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No one other person has the opportunity
that Junior does. He would have sponsors
beating down his door to get on board. It
would be great for him and for the sport in
general.
Stephen Jenkins, IL
that Junior does. He would have sponsors
beating down his door to get on board. It
would be great for him and for the sport in
general.
Stephen Jenkins, IL
His success would be equal to DEI's when
they were at their peak, before Senior's
influence faded away after his death.
Junior understands the sport the way that
his father did and would make an
excellent Cup level owner.
Danny Seimbert, FL
they were at their peak, before Senior's
influence faded away after his death.
Junior understands the sport the way that
his father did and would make an
excellent Cup level owner.
Danny Seimbert, FL
