By Rob D'Amico from Race Day on Fox Sports Radio

This past week Sirius Satellite Radio reported that Teresa Earnhardt has hired Bear, Stearn & Co. to find a buyer or at least a major investor in DEI. Bear, Stearn & Co. recently merged with JP Morgan whose business model is to partner with select clients to find innovative solutions in order to reach their companies goals.

Internet reports have DEI President of Global Operations Max Siegel saying; "We have not engaged Bear, Stearns or Goldman Sachs or anyone else. We are contacted all the time by outside firms about getting involved in the sport. We are not for sale right now. Nothing is imminent. Are we constantly weighing that as an option? Does that make sense? Quite frankly, we don't know.”



Siegel continued to explain how they are contacted all the time by financial companies and they’re not the only ones, "Every team is looking for a way to bring in appropriate resources. Every single one. We haven't engaged anybody. People obviously approach us, they're approaching everybody. We're looking to be around for a long time in future. We're feeling pretty damn good about where we're going, competition-wise.”

So let’s assume for the moment that DEI is on the market, why now?

Is it the economy? Could it be the fact that Dale Earnhardt Jr. no longer races for his father’s company and the value of the teams has plummeted? Could it be that Mark Martin, who drives the #8 part-time will leave DEI for a full season with Hendrick Motorsports in 2009? Doesn’t that sound familiar? Not to mention that it doesn’t look like the U.S. Army will be back with the team in 2009 either. The question begins to more like; Why not now?

Last week DEI made an announcement that Aric Almirola will pilot the #8 team full-time and no sponsor was named at that point. Max Siegel says an announcement is coming soon. “We’re fine,” Siegel said. “We’ll make the announcements of who it is over time.”

It certainly seems that DEI needs some financial and sponsorship backing for 2009 and this is nothing new in the NASCAR Sprint Cup garage. Petty Enterprise, the oldest team in the sport entered into a deal with Boston Ventures, which hopes to leverage the Petty brand, thus bringing in badly needed sponsorship and financial backing to help the Petty’s find their way back to victory lane.

Who would have ever thought the King Richard Petty would let go of the family business, but he did because it’s not your father’s race team anymore its big business. Just ask, Roush-Fenway Racing, Michael Waltrip Racing, Gillette Evernham Racing and others who have also taken advantage of their value in the sport.

So let’s take a look at that value, where does Dale Earnhardt Incorporated fall on the most valuable teams list? According to Forbes Magazine it’s 6th. Four other teams are cited as more valuable as the list below shows. DEI has been valued at $109 million with revenue estimated at $86 million, which is based on past and pending sponsorship agreements and scale of operations.

Forbes Top 10 Most Valuable NASCAR Teams in 2008 are:
(Dollar amount in millions)
1. Henrick Motorsports - $335
2. Roush-Fenway Racing - $313
3. Joe Gibbs Racing - $184
4. Gillette Evernham Racing - $150
5. Richard Childress Racing - $130
6. Dale Earnhardt Inc. - $109
7. Penske Racing - $100
8. Chip Ganassi Racing - $94
9. Michael Waltrip Racing - $86
10. Yates Racing - $74

It wasn’t long ago that Dale Earnhardt Jr. and his sister Kelley Earnhardt-Elledge tried to negotiate 51% of their father’s company but the pair and stepmother Teresa Earnhardt had ‘irreconcilable differences’, ultimately seeing Dale, Jr. move to Hendrick Motorsports.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. was asked after practice at Chicagoland if he had interest in buying DEI, if it were for sale and he said "I don't mean this in a bad way, but I would not have any interest in purchasing it." Enough said.

If I look into my crystal ball, just assume I have one, DEI, in my opinion, will have a partner in the near future. It’s just a matter of time. It’s where the sports is heading with primary sponsorships reaching anywhere between $17-20 million dollars per team, it’s not easy for teams to focus on the business and competition side of this sport at the same time.

You know I’m not suppose to say the “F” word, so cover your ears, here it goes. Franchise. NASCAR doesn’t like it but most of the teams want it or least want the benefits of it, because it would give them something to sell if they were to walk away the sport. A value for something that they’ve put their blood, sweat and tears into. Creating ownership partners gets you as close as you can to franchising without saying it’s a franchise.

The reason NASCAR does want franchises' is because it would keep other teams from entering the sport at anytime.

DEI has a long history in this sport starting back in 1996 with a three-bay garage to its current 200,000 square foot Garage-Mahal that sits on 14 acres. So if they plan on keeping it that way then bring on the partners, soon!