Junior quits.
 

Dale Earnhardt Jr. announced this morning that he is leaving DEI, where he started his NASCAR career at 21 in the Busch Series, to become a free agent.

DEI, Dale Earnhardt Incorporated, is the company his father founded in 1980.

This comes after comments were made earlier this year by Teresa Earnhardt, in which she suggested that Jr. "ought to decide whether he wants to be a race car driver or a celebrity."

Dale Jr. had also been trying to get control of DEI, and had made this a stipulation of him staying with DEI.

Teresa Earnhardt is a mostly "absentee owner" and has even been referred to as a "deadbeat".

"You have to be at the race track and you have to play the politics of the sport and you have to be a part of your team and you have to understand what's going on."

She doesn't.

Ho hum. Wish Crashcar would leave the world...

Teresa (and Dale Jr.'s sister) just killed the golden goose imo. Dale Sr. would be proud of his son imo....

To each their own Joe...don't you have some Democrats/Liberals to bash :)?

Keith,

To tell you the truth, I used to watch Crashcar. That was when it was real racing and there were some rules.

Now its like World Wide Wrestling on wheels, and every 3-4 laps someone taps another car off of the road and then they drive under the yellow until the mess is cleaned up. Another few laps and it happens again...

Sorry but if you are a professional driver, you do not run another car off of the road, period. When they degenerated to this level they lost my and lots of others support.

I can't disagree with you Joe, I rarely watch it anymore either. But I still like Dale's boy :)

Agree and I like both of them.

Just wish that the France family would police up the organization and stop this crap from going on. Playing around is one thing but not during a race and not at 200 mph.

DEI needs Jr waaaay more than Jr needs DEI. Jr will thrive wherever he ends up. DEI will now be just another struggling team.

At what point did they race this way because 'rubbing' has always taken place and yes even to the extreme of crashing other drivers to win. Always happened BUT to each his own. I think F1 sizucks but I love ALMS and Nascar too so go figure.

I wouldn't go that far, as DEI supplies many of the Chebby engines to other teams. Additioinally tit owns something like 60 auto dealerships plus a lot of other ventures.

Dunno...Jr has said he doesn't want to run a team, And Teresa has got to realize what an asset Jr is to DEI. Seems as if they should figure out a way to make it work for both of them.

It's simply a bad business decision for DEI imo, and we'll never know what's going on behind the scenes with Teresa, Dale Jr's sister, et al.

ps: I sure am glad Dale Sr. never wrecked anyone. TV (money) has ruined it imo...

True dat... I'm not a fan but I have a close friend who is and we talk about NASCAR... even went to a race with him when my dad gave me free tickets that he was gifted.

As far as I can tell the fans follow the drivers not the team, although it would be difficult to picture Tony Stewart without the orange home depot logo splattered all over him and his car (BTW my friend HATES TS so when watching with him I alway root for TS to make things interesting). I suppose it is a case of one hand washing the other where the team provides the image/advertising and the driver provides the celebrity/personality therefor it behooves them to stay together for continuity.

I wonder what would happen to all those $150 TS home depot jacket if he changed teams?

I told my buddy about the ghey NASCAR driver and we had a good laugh about it.
Him: "No way... they would bump him off the track on the first lap!"
Me: "Dunno... it might work FOR him... would you want to be known as the driver who bumped the ghey guy in the rear?"

LOL - what are you smoking!!!;)

He might have had some folks get in his way, but he NEVER wrecked anyone and that's my story....

I didn't mean DEI would struggle with cash. They could turn into another lackluster Petty team. Loads of cash and heritage, but no racing success. Jr wants to win first, money is secondary.

Which driver are you referring to? If by chance you're referring to Tim Richmond (died of AIDS), I doubt he was gay (but don't really know)...he was such an item with the ladies that he had a "Magic Johnson" (pun intended) moment...

I bet Rick Hendrick is trying to figure out where he can fit another building right now :D.

Let the bidding begin...
(The Jerry Springer show on wheels)

I think the best news last week was Tony Stewart bashing NASCAR for evolving into WWF of motor sports.

Tony rocks!!!!!

I coined "caution racing" with the gang who lives and breathes this stuff here at work.

Really don't give a hoot about Jr. he will continue to find a ride because of who his dad was.

What time does F1 come this weekend?

On a previous NASCAR thread someone posted a link to gaytona.com... I wouldn't be surprised if it is all a spoof but it spoke of a new guy that is gay... can I say "coming up in the sport" :D

I didn't research it, it may all be a big joke.