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- 8racingfan

image from HendrickMotorsports.com

I’m sure Jimmy Johnson and Jeff Gordon fans will disagree with my story title, but it’s true. The top stories of the year came from Dale Earnhardt Jr. My #1 Google searched story was “Dale Earnhardt Jr Joins Hendrick.”

The Most Popular Driver in NASCAR has the biggest story by far than the Nextel Cup Champion and Hendrick Motorsports. Hendrick drivers should be commended on their winning performances, along with the overall Hendrick dominance. But that dominance falls short of what Junior experienced this year of highs and lows.

A family fued started with Teresa Earnhardt’s rare interview with the Wall Street Journal in December 2006. When asked about Junior’s future with DEI she said,” Right now the ball’s in his court to decide on whether he wants to be a NASCAR driver or whether he wants to be a public personality.” Junior declined comment.

His contract negotiations for a part of DEI ownership ended in May with Junior’s announcement at JR Motorsports he was leaving DEI at the end of 2007. That story alone sent shockwaves across auto racing because Dale Jr was leaving the company his late father established for the future of his family.

Junior’s luck wasn’t there and late May brought a stiff fine for an illegal wing bracket setup. Junior was fined 100 driver points. Junior was also answering hundreds of questions about where he was going to drive in 2008.

In June, Junior announced he was driving for Hendrick Motorsports in 2008. This started more stories on whether he can keep the #8 or get another number, like 81. It also made Hendrick come out and say there’s no room for Budweiser at Hendrick.

In July, Junior announced a split with Budweiser at the end of 2007. Speculation now circled around a PepsiCo company as Junior’s sponsor. The search for number and sponsor was on.

At DEI, a merger was announced between DEI and Ginn Racing. To me, this was an insult to Junior, even though he didn’t comment as such. His father’s company now had a non-family member as part owner. Junior wanted an ownership role in his father’s company, but instead gets a new team in 2008.

Junior’s company; JR Motorsports, had an announcement of their own. JR Motorsports and Hendrick Busch operations would be combined in 2008.

But problems with the #8 car seen engine problems at Chicagoland, Indianapolis and Watkins Glen. More engine problems than the #1 and #15 cars combined and growing. Junior was now running up front every race, just not finishing. A 5th at Bristol and California showed good promise.

In August, the battle for “Free the 8″ was over and lost. Teresa wanted too much in the deal. Stories across the internet was hanging Teresa out to dry. Even Junior came to her defense, asking his fans to leave Teresa alone.

In September, Tony Eury Jr announced he was going with Junior to Hendrick. Tony Jr ended up leaving after the Talladega race. But more blown engines rocked the #8 team, with failures at Richmond and Talladega, plus throw in Martinsville later. All these races, Junior was running up front. In fact, Richmond and Martinsville engine failures happened with about two laps to go. The theory now was that DEI is using the #8 car as a R&D car. I still believe that today.

But September brought news of Junior’a new number and sponsors. The #88 AMP Energy / Mountain Dew and National Guard Chevrolet Impalas was shown at Texas Motor Speedway. PepsiCo owns AMP Energy and Mountain Dew.

The year ended with crashes at Phoenix and Homestead for a nice good-bye from Junior to the #8 team. Homestead closed out Junior’s involvement with the #8 team and Dale Earnhardt Inc.

Dale Earnhardt Jr is big news in auto racing. Leaving his father’s company is shocking enough, but joining Hendrick Motorsports is even bigger. Therefore; my top 5 picks for NASCAR stories of 2007 are;

1. Dale Earnhardt Jr joins Hendrick Motorsports;

2. Dale Earnhardt Jr leaves DEI;        

3. Jimmy Johnson wins Back to Back Championships;

4. Dale Earnhardt Jr has 7 blown engines in 2007;

5. Hendrick Motorsports dominates COT races.

But it’s Dale Earnhardt Jr’s announcement of leaving Dale Earnhardt Inc and joining Hendrick Motorsports that’s really the most talked about stories in racing. I hope Junior will find success and happiness at Hendrick.

image from 8racingfan.com from NHIS

Congratulations to all our Champions in NASCAR. Two out of three championships were decided this past weekend. Many storylines also took place and ending this past weekend.

Congratulations to Jimmie Johnson on his 2nd straight Nextel Cup title, beating his teammate Jeff Gordon by 77 points. Jimmie won 10 races in 2007, including 4 straight wins in the Chase. Chad Knaus, the 48 Crew Chief, called a smart race. The winner of the Homestead race was Matt Kenseth.  

NASCAR will change the name of the series to the “Sprint Cup” in 2008. This change comes even though AT&T name change resulted in the cellphone carrier leaving the series after two years; in 2010. Totally unfair practice, as I’ve written in previous postings.  

Congratulations to Carl Edwards on his first NASCAR championship in the Busch Series. Carl won the Busch Championship over David Reutimann by 618 points.  The final race at Homestead was won by Jeff Burton in the #29 Holiday Inn Chevrolet. Carl Edwatds officially received his Busch Series Championship Trophy out by the start finish line. While Carl Edwards won the driver Championship, Richard Childress Racing won the Owners Championship with the #29 car with drivers Jeff Burton and Scott Wimmer. Richard Childress received the Owners Trophy in Victory Lane yesterday while Jeff Burton received the race winners trophy. Scott Wimmer was also on hand.

Busch officially ends it’s affiliation with NASCAR’s second series. Nationwide Insurance takes over as the new title sponsor in 2008 for the new NASCAR Nationwide Series. Official rule changes are in the works for 2009.  Nationwide will force Geico Insurance out of the series in 2010, just like Sprint did to AT&T, also in 2010.

Congratulations to Ron Hornaday on winning the Craftsman Truck Series Title over Mike Skinner by 54 points. Coming into the race, Mike Skinner had a 29 point lead, but lost it when he broke the left rear wheel assembly and fell back after repairs to 11 laps down. Delana Harvick noted in Victory Lane that Ron Hornaday can drive for Kevin Harvick Inc “as long as he wants.” Ron Hornaday is 49 years old. Great Job Ron! Johnny Benson won the Truck Race at Homestead.  

Speed did a good job broadcasting all 25 races this year. But Michael Waltrip needs to cutdown on the long stories or explainations to situations.

Ricky Rudd will retire after this race. His car owner Robert Yates will also retire. Doug Yates will continue Yates Racing.

Dale Earnhardt Jr’s last race at DEI and in the #8 car. In 2008 he’ll drive for Hendrick Motorsports in the #88 National Guard / AMP Energy/ Mountain Dew Chevrolet. His cousin, crewchief Tony Eury Jr left DEI after Talladega and will join him in 2008. Junior had a very interesting 2007.

Because of Dale Earnhardt Jr’s arrival at Hendrick Motorsports, Kyle Busch will drive for Joe Gibbs Racing in 2008. Joe Gibbs Racing will change manufacturers to Toyota in 2008 with Tony Stewart, Denny Hamlin, and Kyle Busch.

Robbie Reiser will become a General Manager at Roush Fenway Racing and leave the Crew Chief position with Matt Kenseth. He’s been with Kenseth since his rookie year.

Mark Martin will drive the #8 US Army car in 2008 part-time with rookie Aric Almirola. Let’s see how the #8 fans react to this at Daytona.

In 2008, the COT car will be used in all the races. No switching between COT and todays car. The ARCA Series and Busch East Series will benefit from all the left-over Cup cars. 

The return of ESPN with ABC has done a great job, especially in the Chase. Jerry Punch, Rusty Wallace and Andy Petree did a good job in the booth, although Rusty Wallace seemed to talk about Penske Racing more favorably. They used in-race reporters, such as Carl Edwards at Homestead, which made for good reporting, along with their Crew Chiefs. Good pit reports from Jamie Little, Allen Bestwick and Mike Massaro and the ESPN Dish Center with Tim Brewer made for good technical reporting. The new air colors over the cars was a little much.

Overall, 2007 will not be remembered for it’s Champions, but for it’s Most Popular Driver; Dale Earnhardt Jr. His move from his father’s company of Dale Earnhardt Inc to Hendrick Motorsports is huge. Darryl Waltrip feels Junior will win at least 6 races in 2008. Hendrick Motorsports could win 18-20 races in 2008 with Junior, Gordon and Johnson.

See you in Daytona.

Bruten Smith and Speedway Motorsports Inc has purchased New Hampshire International Speedway for $340 million. This purchase includes the 50% interest that Bob Bahre had in the North Wilksboro Speedway, which Bahre and Smith bought together and split the Cup dates. Bob Bahre took one Cup date to New Hampshire and added it to his September line-up, ultimately turning into the first race to the Chase for the Nextel Cup. Bruten Smith took the second date and added to Texas Motor Speedway.

Four other parties wanted to purchase NHIS; which included the Fenway Group’s John Henry, George Gillett from Gillett Evernham Motorsports, a member of the Penske Group (unclear who is was), and the owner of Kentucky Speedway. I would speculate that John Henry would have left the track with two dates. It’s unknown what George Gillett would have done. The Penske Group member would also be an unknown, but who knows. The owner of the Kentucky Speedway would of taken at least one date away so Kentucky Speedway would have a Cup date.  But I would speculate he probably would have taken both.

Bruten Smith ultimately intends, even though he won’t admit it now, intends to take the September date and move it to Las Vegas. That speculation has been in the press since the September NHIS race and beyond.

According to NASCAR the 2008 schedule is locked in, so 2009 would be the earliest Bruten Smith could take the September date to Las Vegas.

So what is NHIS customers thinking now? Get your orders in for 2008, because 2009 doesn’t look good for NHMS. He couldn’t even leave the name alone! I speculate NHMS is in for a few changes; higher ticket prices, parking fees, higher food prices, more seats, and maybe loosing that hill.

New Hampshire has sold out the last 25 straight Cup races, something some of his other tracks can’t say. Lets hear from you New England and Canada. What do you think?

As a New Englander I’d be on cloud nine if I were a New England Patriots or Boston Red Sox fan. The Patriots have 7 wins and no loses and the Red Sox are in the World Series with a 2 games to none lead over the Colorado Rockies. It would be good, but I’m not. I’m a Dale Earnhardt Jr fan. Hense the website 8racingfan.com.

I often wonder if Dale Earnhardt Inc even cares anymore about Junior’s fans. Has any other driver in Nextel Cup blown so many engines than Junior has; seven. Yes, he blew up at Martinsville too. With two laps to go on a restart Dale Jr slowed and pulled aside at the start-finish line. His #8 car wouldn’t go when needed. He went from the top 5 or 6 at the restart to finish 23rd.

In most of the races this season he ran upfront, only to have problems. At Pocono he had problems, but repaired them to finish second behind Kurt Busch. At Indianapolis he led laps, only to blow-up. Seven engine failures in one season must be a season high or close to it. What is DEI doing to these engines?

Is DEI using the #8 as a R&D vehicle? Why not! He’s leaving. Why give Junior anything worth driving? He even blew an engine in the Elvis car at Richmond. Not nice to destroy Elvis. Junior blew-up at all size tracks; short track of Martinsville, road course at Watkins Glen, flat track at Indianapolis, and 3/4 mile track at Richmond. If DEI is R&Ding the #8, they failed. They need new parts manufacturers. If their manufacturing their own parts, stop it.

I want to see Dale Earnhardt Jr win a race this year. But I don’t think he can in bad equipment. I’ve never said that before about DEI cars, especially the #8, which I considered the DEI flagship car of the fleet. Whether it’s R&D or stupidity, Dale Earnhardt Jr is a great driver and will receive good equipment next year. Junior needs to ride it out for the next four races and the madness will be over.

Tony Eury Jr is already hard at work at Hendrick Motorsports getting the new #88 AMP Energy/ Mountain Dew or National Guard Chevy Impala ready for Daytona. I have all the confidence in Tony Jr to take Dale Jr to Victory Lane next year. Hopefully Rick Hendrick won’t do what DEI has apparantly done to Dale Jr and give him bad equipment. We’ll see.

Give me your comments Dale Jr fans. What to you think. Is the #8 a R&D car or is something else wrong? Thanks again.

The question here is just how good Jeff Gordon is. Is Jeff Gordon lucky or skilled?

Jeff Gordon won the Bank of America 500 at Lowes Motor Speedway in Concord, NC. It’s his 2nd win in a row, winning at Talladega last week. In another wrecked filled race, Gordon played with a fuel issue, so they say, ran in the top 10 to 15 most of the night. Ryan Newman gave Gordon his gift by spinning out of the lead, which lead to a green-white-checker finish.

A radio talk by Rick Hendrick to leader Jeff Gordon and then 2nd place Kyle Busch warned both drivers “no wrecks.” With Clint Bowyer running up front also, the possible fuel issue with Gordon didn’t come up and he ran away from Bowyer and Busch, who fought for second with Bowyer winning out. Kyle Busch ended up finishing 3rd, Jeff Burton 4th and Carl Edwards finished 5th.

This was Gordon’s sixth win of the season, second straight in the chase. He now has a 68 point lead over teammate Jimmy Johnson and a 78 point lead over surprising contender Clint Bowyer, who started the chase in 12th place and won his first race at Loudon.

The chase has now expanded out as many chasers had problems, including Tony Stewart who was hit on pitroad and had right front fender damage that needed to be repaired. Tony Stewart finished 7th in the race, but set back to 198 points behind Gordon in the chase.

So the chase standings are;

Jeff Gordon                                             leader

Jimmy Johnson                                       -68 points

Clint Bowyer                                            -78 points

Tony Stewart                                          – 198 points

Carl Edwards                                          – 240 points

Kyle Busch                                              – 280 points

Kurt Busch                                              – 315 points

Kevin Harvick                                        - 328 points

Denny Hamlin                                        – 349 points

Jeff Burton                                              – 366 points

Martin Truex Jr                                     – 378 points

Matt Kenseth                                          - 442 points.

Next week is Martinsville. Good luck.   

I should be happy with sports, especially in my native New England. The Red Sox swept the Angels in the first round of the baseball playoffs and the Patriots are 5-0 in the NFL. But my sport is not baseball or football, it’s NASCAR racing.

I’m a Dale Earnhardt Jr fan. Junor just lost his 6th engine this year. At the time he lost his engine, he was running up front. But this time the disappointment spread. Junior drives for Dale Earnhardt Inc., who merged engine programs with Richard Childress Racing. Of the 4 DEI cars, the Budweiser #8 and the Bass Pro Shops #1 had engine failures. The Menards #15 had an accident and the US Army #01 had problems also. At RCR, the AT&T #31 had engine failure and the Shell #29 dropped a valve. Only the Jack Daniels #07 finished without problems, 11th place. Good engine program DEI. Now you can blame someonelse.

Talladega was a crash fest. It looked more like a demo derby than a stockcar race. Drivers complained they couldn’t see past that rear wing, either out the rear window or see through the car in front to see further problems ahead.

The Jacques Villenueve problem didn’t happen. After qualifying 6th, he dropped to the back at the start of the race so he wouldn’t cause any problems. Jeff Gordon was still right in his assessment that this rookie shouldn’t start his career at this track. San Hornish Jr didn’t qualify for the race.

Tony Eury Jr’s last race at DEI. He leaves for Hendrick Motorsports early. Per his agreement, he can take four members of the #8 crew with him. Tony Jr will be missed for the rest of the season.

NASCAR signed Nationwide Insurance as the new title sponsor of the Busch Series. The series will now be called the NASCAR Nationwide Series. Signing Nationwide puts Geico Insurance sponsorship of the #7 Mike Wallace car out of their series in two years. Geico can sponsor cars in the Cup or truck series, but not in the Nationwide Series. This is another case of a title sponsor weeding out it’s competitors. It’s Nextel vs AT&T again.  Geico is the only sponsor to promote the Busch Series with the Lauren Wallace commercials that even the race broadcasters talk about.

This weekend was great for speed fans and bad because of stupidity. NASCAR needs to tweak the COT and tighten up certain rules. Last weekends “reasonable speed” at the end of the race needs to be nailed down to a specific speed. At the discretion of NASCAR doesn’t work anymore.

photos by 8racingfan.com 

On September 16, 2007, I attended the Nextel Cup race at NHIS. I took over one hundred photos from pitroad and the garage area as part of Shell’s Best Seat in the House program.

I covered the #29 Shell pits and took many photos. Help yourself to these photos at my photo site www.infieldparking.com/8racingfan1/photos. I have photos of the Shell team, plus Dale Earnhardt Inc teams, and the other chase contenders. 28 photos were placed on my infield parking site. Enjoy. I know I did.

image from QVC

Tony Eury Jr will leave Dale Earnhardt Inc after the Talladega race October 7. Eury Jr will take four members of the #8 team will him when he leaves, although ESPN reports only one member of the team has expressed any interest to DEI.

Tony Gibson will crew chief the remainder of the year. He replaced Eury Jr in the 6 race suspension earlier this year.

Also, new Dale Jr gear is selling very well, about 200,000 t-shirts alone. AMP Energy reports Walmart and Kmart sold 160,000 t-shirts very quickly. Other outlets such as QVC and JRNation had pre-orders of t-shirts and the diecasts cars. Diecasts from QVC are available for shipment around February, 2008.  T-shirts will be available by QVC in November.

image from speedtv.com

Dale Earnhardt Jr will drive the #88 AMP Energy/ Mountain Dew/ National Guard Chevrolet Impala for Hendrick Motorsports. The wait for the number is over and Dale Jr is happy with his decision.

Since December 2006 when Teresa Earnhardt told a newspaper that Dale Jr needs to choose between Race Car driver and celebrity, Dale Jr’s been searching for more. He first tried to get controlling interest of DEI in his contract negotiations. Then he announced he was searching for a new ride and leave DEI. Then he chose to drive for Hendrick Motorsports. Then he announced that Budweiser wouldn’t be his sponsor in 2008. Then he lost the fight to obtain use of the #8 in 2008.

Now Dale Jr lands the #88. He also finds himself with AMP Energy, Mountain Dew, and National Guard as primary sponsors. It will be good for Junior and Tony Eury Jr to have a fresh start with the #88 and new sponsors. I think AMP Energy will be his best bet. Also, Junior’s diecasts won’t be adult collectibles anymore, so children can buy his products.

We’ll see in 2008. The #88 has a great history, including his grandfather Ralph Earnhardt driving the #88 in 1957 for Petty Enterprises. Other drivers of the 88 included Dale Jarrett, Rusty Wallace, Buck Baker, and Benny Parsons.

So Hendrick Motorsports has Dale Jr in the #88 Mountain Dew/ AMP Energy/ National Guard Chevy. Gillett Evernham has Kasey Kahne for 2008 in the #9 Budweiser Dodge. DEI will have Mark Martin and Aric Amirola in the #8 US Army Chevy. DEI is still searching for a sponsor for the 01 for 2008.