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Season Preview: Dale Earnhardt Inc.

by Tim Zaegel on February 4th, 2008

With all of the teams that have undergone significant astronomical changes heading into the 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup season, Dale Earnhardt Inc. ranks rate up there. The thing that separates the changes with DEI this year from that of Hendrick Motorsports or Joe Gibbs Racing, however, is that the point of impact will not be determined by what they’ve gained in this offseason, but rather with what they’ve lost … Dale Earnhardt Jr. While even the biggest fans inside the realms of Junior Nation will agree that the son of “the Intimidator” has underachieved thus far in his career – at least compared to the expectations that constantly loom over his head – the name recognition that he was able to bring to his father’s company is unrivaled. With the loss of Junior also comes the loss of fan support, key sponsorships (ie, Budweiser), and all-around financial gains. Yes, they’ve lost the most popular driver not only in NASCAR, but in motorsports.

In 2007, Dale Earnhardt Junior failed to make the Chase for the Nextel Cup while the “other” Junior – Martin Truex – finished 11th in points and won his first career Cup race in only his second full-time Cup schedule. Much of this may or may not be attributed to the many conspiracy theories out there claiming that DEI deliberately sabotaged Dale’s engines and mechanical setups once the team learned that he would be parting ways with the company following the season, but that’s all debatable. Whether Truex is better than Earnhardt is also debatable, but no matter what happens in the next couple years, the fact is that Earnhardt will still be recognized as the superior between the two. What’s funny with this whole scenario, though, is the fact that neither Earnhardt or Truex is even comparable to the man that is actually the best driver on this year’s DEI roster … Mark Martin. The fact that Martin is still so talented and running well at this point in his career poses an interesting debate, though, because one could argue that despite the fact that he’s likely to run well in the majority of his races again this year, some still believe that he’s only taking up roster space because of the fact that he’s not running a full-time schedule. With Junior out of the picture and Mark Martin running limited time again this year, the basically leaves Truex as the lone hope for DEI to get a driver into the Chase. That’s a lot of pressure to throw onto the young shoulders of the driver of the no. 1 car … asking him to not only step out of Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s shadow, but to also take DEI to the promised land. Frankly, I think DEI’s bitten off a little more than they can chew, and some will argue that when the walls come crashing down on Theresa Earnhardt, it will be much deserved.

Cup Series Roster:

01: Regan Smith – With Mark Martin moving from the 01 to the 8 car this season, DEI went out and decided to bring Regan Smith up to the big-times this year. Regan’s been running the Nationwide Series (formerly Busch Series) since 2002, and will now join once of the most highly anticipated rookie classes in recent Cup Series memory. His best Nationwide Series points season was 20th in 2006 and comes to the Cup with no wins and only one pole position under his belt.  Nonetheless, DEI felt that he was ready, and in fact, in the midst of a huge rookie class this year, many fans believe that Smith will be the one to end 2008 as the Rookie of the Year.

1: Martin Truex Jr – Truex ran a combined nine races at the Cup level between 2004 and 2005 that resulted in only one top ten finish. During those same years, however, he was also running a full-time Busch Series schedule and became only the second driver ever to win the Busch championship in back-to-back seasons (the other being Earnhardt Jr). In 2006, he decided to leave the ranks of the second series and run full-time in Cup. 2006 resulted in a mediocre, yet solid rookie season, finishing 19th in points, including 2 top five’s and 5 top ten’s. Things turned around for him last season, however, as he cruised to 7 top five’s and 14 top ten’s, including his first ever Cup victory. Oh, and did I mention that he also qualified to make the Chase field, though he ran miserably in the final 10 races of the season, managing to finish only 11th in points. This season he will have his work cut out for him as he not only sets out to improve upon his numbers from last year, but as he also tries to erase the memory of Dale Earnhardt Jr from the halls of DEI.

8: Mark Martin / Aric Almirola – Just as he did last year, Mark Martin has decided to run a “limited” schedule in the Sprint Cup for 2008, participating in only 24 of the 36 races on the schedule. Last year’s schedule produced five top five’s and eleven top ten’s, finishing 27th in driver points despite only running 2/3 of the races. It’s actually kind of sad, though. Based on his numbers from last year and 2006 – his last full-time season in which he finished 4th in points – one has to think that if he would continue running full-time that he might be able to finally capture his first Cup Championship. Since he ran his first Cup race back in 1981, Mark has finished 2nd in points on four occasions – the most recent of which came in 2002 when Tony Stewart took the title from him in the final race of the season – but, he’s never been able to win the big one. The twelve points races that Mark will not be competing in will be run by rookie Aric Almirola. Aric ran 6 Cup races last season with an average finish of 34.

15: Paul Menard – Menard, who ran his first full-time Cup season in 2007, was a disappointment. He qualified for only 30 of the 36 races and failed to land a single top ten finish (though he did have a top ten in 2006 running a very limited schedule). In fact, some would argue that the highlight of Menard’s Cup career thus far would be his short-lived feud last season with Tony Stewart. In his two seasons in the Busch Series prior to jumping to the Cup level, Menard did accumulate a win, 13 top five’s, and 31 top ten’s, demonstrating himself as a model of consistency. However, he has yet to find the key ingredients to translate his Busch success into NASCAR’s premier level.

Driver Roster: C
Off-Season: F
2008 Outlook: C-

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