What a year its been in the Cup Series if you are a Dale Earnhardt Jr. fan which would include my father and I and its not over yet. We started the season off at DEI with hopes of winning races and a golden championship. Then as soon as its started fans were already hit with contract talks, that’s something to distract a driver and the first of what would be four major announcements sort of speck.
The first announcement came earlier this year in May when Dale Jr. called a press conference to announce that the contract talks have been stopped and he would be leaving Dale Earnhardt Inc.. Beyond that there were no details including his new home, number (except for that he would like to keep the number 8 if possible…). From there all that followed was more and more rumors and speculations of just were he would end up and one included RCR driving either the #8 or #33, interesting.
A month later (June), Dale Jr. called a second press conference to announce were he would be driving in 2008 and beyond, beyond being 5 years… His new home would be the man who said “There’s no room at the inn.”, yeah Hendrick Motorsports. As you could expect that was meet with mixed responses, he would become Jimmie 's and one of the most talked about men in the Cup Series, Jeff Gordon’s teammate. In the end, from my look at it, I’m not to thrilled with Dale Jr. being Gordon’s teammate, but Hendrick Motorsports is the best and that’s just were he should be. Perfect match.
Following that, speculation would continue to run ramped with all eyes on his number and sponsor and then welcome a press release stating that DEI wouldn’t let Dale Jr. use the #8 in 2008 and beyond, later it came out the DEI’s owner wanted part of the revenues involved in the number 8 and that was that. I have also heard some about Teresa owning naming rights to Dale Earnhardt Jr., he needs to get full control over that more than anything else. A couple days later, the news story broke that Hendrick Motorsports had put in trademark application for the numbers #38, #51, #58, #81 and #82 with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office throughout July and August.
Since than Hendrick Motorsports has released a driver lineup, in 2008 Casey Mears would move from the #25 team to the #5 team with Kellogg’s as a sponsor which to me is a good move and that would put Dale Jr. with the #25 team (New number) with Tony Eury Jr. signing a multi-year deal as his crew chief. Eury Jr. had always wanted to work at Hendrick, what a match. So the latest says that Dale Jr. will be driving the #81 with his sponsor being a PepsiCo product (most likely being Mountain Dew) half of the time and National Guard the other half.
To top it all off, just released that Hendrick that filed one more number with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office being the #28. David Poole reported that Yates did not have the number 28 and “It’s his if NASCAR lets them have it,” Yates said. Welcome the leading number in the Dale Jr. number search, #28, that works for me with the number 81 as his second choice.
Now all Dale Jr. fans can do is wait for the final press conference were Dale Jr. will hopefully announce his new car number and sponsor. I'm thinking... for the number, #28 (that would be perfect) or the #81 as a second choice. The sponsor, hearing it would be a PepsiCo Product – Mountain Dew for half the season and National Guard for the other half. As for color, with either black with some green or Dale Jr. said he would like a white car (some of his major victories has ben in a white car including Daytona 500 and 2001 Pepsi 400 at Daytona), may be with a little red mixed in. That works for me.
Hearing anywhere from 2 weeks to the first week of November for this final announcement and just remember there is a racing season going on here too and even though Dale Jr. isn't in the chase, he can still do what Tony Stewart did last year after not making the chase and just go and win races, that celabration in its own. What's Next?
