So all that good will that RYR was garnering over offering the 38 to Junior?

Throw it out the window.

Seems maybe someone jumped the gun a little (or communication between Robert and Doug sucks donkey balls) when reporting that the 38 had been offered up. ESPN (via Jayski) has a quote from Doug Yates:

"Dale Jr., since he can't have what he wants, he might want the 38," said Yates, president Yates/Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing. "They're asking for the 38, and the 38 and 88 are our numbers. It's almost a little strange. It's like somebody asking if they can take your girlfriend or your wife out. We feel we're going to have the 38 and 88 [next year]."

Now, maybe it's just me, but this came out today. Bob Dillner reported the news about the 38 being offered up on Sunday. The internet and various news sources (all of them venerable and established) have been reporting this story all week long. Hendrick representatives commented on it earlier in the week. NASCAR officials said that they had not been contacted about a swap. There are three parties in this (despite what Doug says, it's RYR, Hendrick and NASCAR - not Junior - who would be the involved parties). Why would the party that has the most stake in it take all week to comment on a hot news item?

I'll admit, this one has me befuddled. Yes, sometimes the news just gets reported wrong. But another quote in the same article has Doug saying that the numbers are his dad's territory. And Doug chose Friday (or late Thursday, depending on when the reporter spoke to him) to say anything about the whole situation. And quite frankly, he's talking about it like he never watches the news and never had a clue what was going on. Let's face it. That's a bunch of ####. Or his PR department sucks at relaying important information.

Or Robert is keeping him out of the loop on really important business information.

Interestingly, Hendrick has, over the course of a couple of weeks (July 25th - Aug. 9th) applied for the trademark/patent for five numbers (#38, #51, #58, #81, #82). This isn't petitioning NASCAR - it's protecting their rights as an owner should someone try to patent a number and font and claim infringement because Junior used something similar, even though the person using said number had nothing to do with racing. (Given Junior's stature, a highly possible situation.)

The #38 was petitioned on Aug. 9th. That was before Dillner's report, so it's possible that Hendrick contacted Yates before the news went public and Dillner was misled as to who initiated contact with regards to the number. I'd even dare say probable, given Doug Yates' response to all the talk. But it still begs the question...why, when it's your number, wait so long to say anything?

(And on an only slightly related note, looking at that list of numbers, I have a certain fondness for the idea of the 58. It keeps the identity of the two car numbers together.)