DEI Sends Junior Up In Smoke
Quick Timeline:First 10 races of 2007: Dale Earnhardt Jr. sits 12th in points, despite 2 engine failures. His DEI teammate, Martin Truex Jr, sits 20th in points, and had 1 engine failure.
May 10th, 2007: Dale Earnhardt Jr announces he will depart from DEI at the end of the ’07 season.
4 races later: Earnhardt Jr drops to 14th in points, while Truex gets his first win and jumps up to 11th in the standings.
June 13th, 2007: Earnhardt announces he will join Hendrick Motorsports in 2008.
Present Day: Martin Truex sits in the Chase field contending for the Nextel Cup Championship. Dale Earnhardt sits in 13th on the outside looking in. Since the announcement that he would be leaving DEI, Junior has suffered four more engine failures and a last-lap lost wheel … Truex has had 2 engine failures in that span.
Okay, so I’m normally not the guy standing up in the room trying to get people to jump on board with the latest conspiracy theory, but c’mon, this is just ridiculous. I think it’s plain as day – based on the evidence I’ve provided for you in the above timeline, that Dale Earnhardt Incorporated has left Dale Earnhardt Junior out to dry. I’m not exactly what you’d call a “fan” of the number 8 (though, I really don’t dislike the guy, either), but I am an advocate of the idea that the best driver should win races … the second best driver should finish second … so on and so on. DEI has taken that notion and tossed it right out the window. I’m not saying it’s deliberate … well, maybe I am. Okay, so I’m not saying that they’re deliberately sabotaging the guy, but I do believe they’re deliberately not helping him win races. I mean, c’mon – it’s right there in front of your face! Ever since Jr entered this sport at the premier level, he has undoubtedly been the face of DEI, and rightfully so. He’s been the most popular driver (as determined by the fans) year after year, he’s won races, and he gave his team a chance to win Championships (despite coming up empty-handed). About a quarter of the way into the season, the 8 team hadn’t been running that great, but they weren’t really that bad, either. The number 1 team of Martin Truex, on the other hand … they were running bad. All of the sudden, within 4 weeks of Dale announcing he would be leaving the team, Truex jumps up 9 spots in the standings while Earnhardt drops two spots? Tsk. Tsk.
So, fast-forward a couple of months and now we’re at Richmond, the final venue before opening up the Chase for the Nextel Cup. Truex is in the Chase while the “big dog”, Dale Earnhardt Jr, is grasping at straws for his chance to make the field. He races hard at Richmond, but all for naught as he doesn’t get in … DEI has successfully established that Martin Truex is more than capable of being the front-man for the team in the coming years. Victory to DEI, right? Well, apparently that’s not enough. In my estimation, they want to take it a step further and show the world that not only is Truex capable of leading them, but also that Earnhardt was bringing the team down. Every race I’ve watched Dale run in these past few weeks, he’s taken a God awful car and put it toward the front of the field for the majority of the race, only to watch it go up in smoke before seeing that checkered flag waive. Things looked as though they might be different at Atlanta since he was actually able to make it all the way to the green-white-checkered finish, but then he … loses a frickin’ wheel? I’ve seriously seen that happen one time in my life, and that was to Robby Gordon, so that one wasn’t really much of a surprise. What I witnessed this past Sunday just left me in pure disbelief. Unreal.
I know just about every racing fan in the world has an opinion of their own as to what’s happened to Earnhardt this year, and I’m sure many of you don’t much agree with me on this one. But, let me ask you this … do you really think that Martin Truex, at this stage in his career, is even half the driver that Dale Earnhardt Jr is? Is it that far-fetched to think that a little winch like Theresa Earnhardt would be above sacrificing her own team by giving Dale second-rate equipment, just to stick it to him out of pure spite? Exactly. Theresa, your husband would be ashamed.
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POSTED IN: NASCAR
4 opinions for DEI Sends Junior Up In Smoke
TrackHazard4Real
Oct 30, 2007 at 1:07 pm
Another great article that I agree with.
roc
Oct 30, 2007 at 3:28 pm
t.z.
You know the junior fan I am i feel that there is something wrong with this whole picture. Do you really believe that that money whore is blowing up her own engines. That is money out of here pocket . Did junior get the crap I think so. I think they wanted to stick it to the man, he maid the step-monster look bad now she is returning the favor. Martin is a nice guy I meet him at gateway a couple years ago but he is not the driver that june bug is. At least not know I wouldn’t be surprised if he didn’t turn into one of the best drivers on the track later in his career after some of the better drivers leave the sport. You said that you were looking for more story’s than news good for you i think that if you give people something I will make this web sight a heck of a lot better Bravo .bravo. Keep it up!!!!! We need stories to argu about.
Tim Zaegel
Oct 31, 2007 at 12:22 pm
I appreciate the feedback and support.
Roc, I agree, I don’t really believe that Theresa would blow up her own engines on purpose, purely due to the financial aspects associated with doing that. I do, however, think that they’re feeding him the bottom of the barrell equipment that they have lying around the shop and not giving his cars the care required to finish a race.
roc
Nov 2, 2007 at 8:21 am
I agree with that I think alot of might be with the new engine departed they might be using him as a test dummy cause it seems like the cars are really strong just don’t have the capablity to go the distance.
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