Jeff Gordon has a lifetime contract and Du Pont is signed through 2008. He is not going anywhere and I don't think Du Pont is either. Du Pont and Gordon go together just like Richard Petty and STP.
Jimmie Johnson and Lowes are signed through 2010. There will be no movement here either. I know, I know, nobody expects Gordon or Johnson to move. Bur bear with me. I am just sitting the table here.
Kyle Busch is signed through 2008 as are Car Quest and Kellogg's. Again, no movement here.
Casey Mears is signed through 2008 as well. However, the National Guard is not signed beyond this season. So Hendrick needs a sponsor here. Is Budweiser and Dale Jr. the answer? I honestly hope not. I would hate to see Casey Mears get done this way. Hendrick has a pretty good reputation. I don't think he wants to sully it.
Of course, I never thought Jr. would leave Dale Earnhardt Incorporated (DEI) this season either. Shows how much I know.
With the success that Hendricks Motorsports has had this season alone. It's enough to believe that they'll have potential sponsors come knocking at their doors. As corporations want to be associated with success and nothing else. That's why I for one believe that if Michael Waltrip and his team don't have anything to show by the end of the year. They'll more likely than not lose a great deal of their sponsorship. It's not the car that's the problem with his team. But more the quality of his drivers and his questionable tactics overall. I don't even think that he makes a good owner. He's merely living in the shadow of the success of his older brother and it now doubt pains him to see that even as an owner he's at a loss. As a driver he was only marginally better . Toyota were fools to think that he'd be the one to offer them success at the highest level of NASCAR. But as they say ' you pays for what's you gets . ' And Toyota in this case has overpaid for the services of Waltrip and his band of amatuerish drivers.
rampant/tophatal ..............
Last edited by rampantfanatic on May 15th at 8:31 PM.
Is there, perhaps, a loophole Hendrick could use? Could he perhaps rebrand the #48 car, with listed owner Jeff Gordon, as Jeff Gordon Motorsports, thus alowing him to add another? I didn't think of this before, but maybe it could work.
I'm sure Casey Mears is more than anxious right now. He should be - I figured that it would be worth paying out his contract and letting him go to bring in the Budweiser and Jr. combo. That's my best guess anyways ...
If Jr.'s gonna go so far as to make the split with DEI, he would be well advised to link up with the only sure bet owner out there - Hendrick. Hendrick seems like a loyal type of owner and would likely lose sleep over a decision to dump Mears, but it would be hard to pass up on the Budweiser/Jr. opportunity.
What I'd enjoy would be all the squirming that Jr. fans would have to do should their main man join forces with, in their collective opinion, "the dark side".
Last edited by Dave_in_Indy on May 15th at 5:49 AM.
Ed Hinton said categorically on Wind Tunnel that Junior is going to end up at Hendrick, possibly by buying out Kyle Busch's contract and moving him over to Bobby Ginn's team. In that case Joe Nemechek or Sterling (your boy, I know) would be out at Ginn (assuming Mark Martin and Regan Smith stay and Smith runs Cup full-time), but according to jayski's team page neither Joe or Sterling is under contract past this season.
Personally, I think the Dale Jr. to Hendrick idea is fantastic, and would probably be the greatest team on paper since Prost and Senna were both driving McLarens.
Since it's now become almost apparent that he'll more likely than not sign with Richard Childress Racing. The point now becomes almost mute. I really don't see HMS wanting to screw up a good thing. There'd be too much testosterone in the room for one to stand. Can you imagine the egos of Gordon, Little E and Jimmy Johnson all being in the same room let alone being on the same team ? It'd be far too volatile for most and what about the crew chiefs ? The loyalties are bound to be divided !
I feel adding Dale JR. to Hendrick MS in the 25 car would be a GREAT move and I feel it should be done before this July 4th race. Casey should move to Ginn. If this happens I see all of the current #8 supporters falling on their swords….;-) The Hendrick stable would be an all star team as never seen before. You talk about domination.
Have you heard about the penalty for the #8 team? I was just wondering about your thoughts on it. I'm a JR fan, but I am glad they were fined. I don't want to hear the NASCAR is covering their butts stories. I'd like to see JR and Gordan be teammates. Several months ago Gordan and Harvick both expressed a desire to have him on their teams. It would sure be interesting. Keep up the great work and thanks.
Ginn buys engines from Hendrick so they have a business relationship. However, why would they move Kyle instead of Casey?
Sterling has an option for next season. But I hope he retires. Ginn will go to four teams next year. So according to your drift, I could see, Martin/Kinser, Smith, Nemechek and Bush.
I like your monniker. I find myself trying to stay above board today.
You raise an excellent point. As soon as a deal is made someone may ask their driver to move on now. It often happens when feelings are hurt and/or loyalty is in question. Tighten up those seatbelts. This could get wild in a hurry.
Sounds like a penalty has been leveled and accepted. Sounds pretty run of the mill to me.
Honestly, I am not following it closely though. What are your thoughts? Blog it if you would like to.
Thank you so much for your readership and support.
Despain and Hinton sort of vaguely alluded to a money issue with Busch and it sounds like JJ, Gordon, and Casey are the 3 Musketeers, with Kyle kind of on the periphery, so Kyle could be the odd man out.
Nice job, Tony Jr.! You work from 40th to get into position to make the Chase then get docked 100 points for wing brackets, which means in NASCAR-land wing brackets on the 8 = engine tampering on the 55. Mikey is lucky these didn't happen in reverse order, because he'd probably be looking at a 400-point penalt now that NASCAR has upped the ante on penalties.
What? Kyle thinks he is worth more now? He should have signed a better contract to begin with then. Or does he think he is worth more next time and Hendrick doesn't agree resulting in kind of a reduce the salary cap situation?
Note: I'll have to leave the DEI penalty issue to more advised readers and writers.
14Falcons ........... Asking for 51% may not seem to be an ego trip. In many cases it was just made good business sense. But at the end of the day it's all about winning and that's something neither he or anyone else at DEI had been doing on a regular basis. Having the name may mean a lot but if you aren't being successful on the track you better be sure as hell that you're being successful off the track for your major sponsors by pushing their products. Dale Jr as of late has just been doing the latter. And that ain't exactly what he's actually being paid for. They want success overall on the track that way their products are being recognized and sold more.
As for him going to HMS I doubt that it'll happen. RCR would seem the natural fit as he'd be welcomed with open arms into that fraternity.
As long as Chad Knauss is employeed by Hendricks
, Dale Junior will NEVER EVER race fir that team.
His fans would disown him he he was teammates with a guy known for cheating.
And those two Hate each other..
you see how bad Earnhardt fans treat Jeff Gordon(even though hes one of the best dricers in NASCAR) just because of his association with Jimmie Johnson and Chad Knauss.
Texascudaguy ...... Dale Jr's best bet is to stick with RCR where he'll feel welcomed. As it is, his father had a close association and relationship with Richard Childress. So it shouldn't be any different between the son and his father's former boss.
14falcons... Is it really so crazy to consider that Ginn Racing may be a perfect fit for all of Jr's needs? After all, with Ginn's development team, Jr. Motorsports could thrive with Ginn's drivers and they have proven to be growing and strengthening in the slower but right direction.
Wow...so Knauss is the reason why everyone hates Gordon? (and when I say everyone, I basically mean all but his fans) I thought it was because he was a Cali boy and no one in Cali gives a damn about Nascar. (except me, of course)
Falcs...why didn't Eury remove the wing brackets? From my understanding, which is limited, they were used to hold his spoiler in angle/place in the wind tunnel. When they placed the car on the track, they didn't remove the brackets. Isn't Eury a relative of Jr's? How could something like this be missed?
I don't think it is crazy. But I do think it is flattering. I really hadn't considered Ginn to be that good of team. If you look at JayJay Dean's blog, he ranks them highly and I like seeing that. But I wasn't noticing that anyone else was noticing. Apparently they are. Hey, it's all good.
However, I understand that NASCAR has rules about the brackets and that some teams have been using brackets they thought were OK only to later have NASCAR tell them, no they are not OK. This isn't the first "bracket" issue. Some say there are advantages to using different brackets, Some say there isn't that much advantage. Some brackets can be designed to let the spoiler or wing change its angle as I understand it, which might or not be advantageous.
You can bet that the crew chiefs push every envelope as far as they can. They have to. It is their job. Every now and then they push it too far and NASCAR calls them on it.
Are they cheating? Not really, they are usually in a grey area. But NASCAR has to draw the line somewhere and they do. It's just another part of racing that you will find in every level. And it is one more reason racing is drama.
That's all I can offer now. You can probably learn more about this particular case from other articles on line.
14Falcons ........... The technical expertise levelled at you by lisa is correct. It was however stupid what Eury did for Dale. And it's coming to everyone's notice now that he'll do almost anything as he sees fit in order for his cousin to win. What we now should be asking is whether or not Dale was a party to what his cousin has been doing. Because this is not the first time that this has happened to him and Dale Jr. It's now looking as if it's becoming repetitive in its nature of events.
jay... I think Ginn Racing would be nuts to sign Busch!! If the scenerio of Hendrick releasing a driver to Ginn, Mears would be a much better choice. At least he's not totally disliked.
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