Dale Earnhardt Jr. And Hendrick Motorsports: At World's End

It must seem like a nightmare for some diehard Earnhardt fans: Dale Earnhardt Jr. will be leaving his late father's company, DEI, at the end of this season to drive for Hendrick Motorsports. I'm sure many race fans hoped the whole situation was just a rumor at first. Earnhardt is going to be on a team with Jeff Gordon? It's almost like the world has come to an end.

Most likely, the initial shock has begun to wear off for many of Dale's fans, hopefully even the diehard ones. Like it or not, Earnhardt is joining a team that's a proven winner, having won six Nextel Cup titles and 10 of 14 races in the 2007 season going into this Sunday. Many factors played into this decision, a monumental one for the sport that will be talked about for years to come. Hopefully, the majority of this talk will be positive.

Earnhardt wants to win, and he wants to do it now. Given Hendrick's track record, he has made a very wise choice. Another major factor playing into this is the way the DEI team, now run by Teresa Earnhardt, Dale Sr.'s wife, operates. When you think of team owners, you think of guys like Roush, Gibbs, and Rick Hendrick. These guys are very much involved in team decisions, and you can usually find them at the racetrack on most weekends. Teresa Earnhardt hardly comes to any NASCAR events, and I personally think it's a situation where she got greedy and wanted control once her husband died. She is, in my opinion, totally unfit to run a racing team, and I think fans will see this come to light in the coming years. The star is now gone, and DEI will go in the tank as a result.

The irony here is the way that Hendrick runs its business operations. You have three guys on this team in Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, and Casey Mears, who all seem to be PR geniuses. Gordon has made appearances on Regis and Kelly, has his own brand of wine, and markets Pepsi, expensive sunglasses, and Tag Heur watches. Johnson is a nice guy who made his rise in the sport through being just that, nice. He is so protective of the company image that he initially tried to hide the fact that he injured his wrist in a golf-cart accident last year. Casey Mears is sponsored by the Army National Guard, and he represents this sponsor well: He sports a buzz cut, is a pleasant human being, and always stays out of trouble.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. is basically a polar opposite of all these guys. He sleeps late, drinks Budweiser, and plays video games. Also notable is the fact that his press conference the other day is the most dressed up I've ever seen him, and he was wearing an untucked button-up shirt with jeans. Rick Hendrick apparently doesn't have a problem with this, as he says he won't try to change Dale's image. For all his flaws, Earnhardt is a smart and reasonable guy, and he'll do whatever he has to do in the best interests of the team.

As far as the Gordon rivalry goes, Dale Jr. says it was mostly created by the fans (I don't care much for him either, just for the record). Apparently, the elder Earnhardt and Gordon had a couple of business ventures together and got along pretty well. Junior is not going to back down and be submissive, as he said in his press conference that he'd still try to race Jeff and be competitive with him, just like it's always been.

Lastly, fans have to be thinking about the 8 car and its longtime sponsor, Budweiser. Earnhardt will be swapping out with Kyle Busch, the young driver of the number 5 car, or getting the 25 from Casey Mears, with Mears jumping over to the 5 car. Let's hope that Teresa and Dale can settle their differences long enough to get all those things worked out and we see Junior in the number 8 Budweiser car for Hendrick Motorsports in 2008. Even if we see him in a different ride, the new team is going to help Dale Earnhardt Jr. regain something that is synonymous with his family name: winning. I suspect we'll being seeing that a good from Junior from now on. Look for many Nextel Cup titles with Junior's name on them in the coming years.