Dale Jr.: Will He Stay Or Will He Go?
 Why is the #8’s on-track performance in jeopardy in 2007? Because there are so many variables and adaptations: the COT coming mid-season; new Chevy engine later in ’07; and whether the same driver will be in it in 2008. (Sam Sharpe photo) |
Is this the year that Dale Earnhardt Jr. and the DEI #8 Bud crew finally live up to their full potential and win the Cup championship? Or is this the year that re-signing negotiations between him and DEI team owner/stepmother Theresa Earnhardt over who controls DEI break down and are unresolved to each one’s satisfaction. Then, he leaves to write his future anywhere else in Cup racing or motorsports in general. He’s not too old to learn F1. Hey, if Juan Pablo Montoya can go stock car racing…
At this writing the contract issue is still in discussion and you can bet that plenty of parties want this signed, sealed and delivered -- not least of all DEI new-hire President of Global Operations, Max Siegel. There is a major negotiating point – Dale Jr. no longer wants to be treated like a Jr., and has gone on record as saying he wants majority ownership of DEI.
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Why is this man smiling? Dale Jr. wants majority ownership of DRI from his stepmother/owner Theresa Earnhardt, when (if) he re-signs with the company his father founded. He is bargaining from a position of strength. (Kevin Thorne photo)
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The personal relationship between Dale Jr. and his stepmother, Theresa, has never been conventionally “motherly.” He has that with his biological mother. Yet, there is plenty of emotional endurance between them – they were united after Dale Sr.’s death – and Jr. has always been respectful. A good Southern boy would be nothing but. One sent off to military school would also be so.
But it is six years since his father’s death at the Daytona 500 and he has matured and now knows his place in the sport, and is growing more into it. He has gone beyond being a racer to being a public star – much as Tiger Woods or Michael Jordan or his father transcended their sports.
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Why is this woman ready to negotiate? Thersa Earnhardt and her stepson have met hard challenges before, but this re-sgning negotiation is a test for them both. She will have to relinquish control of DEI for it to survive and grow. (LMS/Harold Hinson photo)
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Theresa Earnhardt knew how to deal with Sr. the star, but she can’t seem to do so with Dale Jr. the star. It is a brilliant move to call in the balanced lawyer Max Siegel (who has strong experience with stars) to work with Jr. because the emotion between these two people who share the same last name is ultimately counterproductive in the negotiations. If you thought the brokerage of the Peace Accords in the Middle East was tough, this deal rivals them for its emotional volatility.
Of course DEI is sealed up tight on any information leaks about this. When the Lowe’s Nextel Media Tour stopped by DEI, it was pointedly explained that any questions about the contract negotiations were off-limits. The vibe I get from sources is that the people who work there would just like it to get resolved quickly so they can get to work winning races. You can be certain, though, that resumes are being made up-to-date, just in case.
Winning races is something that the #8 has to do more consistently if the most popular driver in stock car racing is going to keep the goodwill he’s earned with the newer short-attention-span-theater fans of the sport. Jr. has always been about potential – living under what could be called crushing expectations – and he has amazingly maintained his sense of self-worth and accomplishment.
But he has become frustrated by the lack of consistency of his race team. You get majority ownership and you can fix that. There have been some internal management changes inside DEI too, which have made it tough for the #8 to stay consistently in the top finishing.
Last year was certainly an improvement over 2005, when his average finish was 20th (2006 = 13th), but just when it seemed he and the team were getting on-track consistency in ‘06, something derailed them. Sometimes it seemed Dale Jr. would “call out” his engine guys on TV – although the powerplants were reliable. Around Bristol Chevrolet teams are expected to start using their new engines – the primary (major) change is the cylinder heads are revised and completely new. Barrels of racing gas have been burning in the Chevy teams engine R&D sections for the past year-plus getting it ready. But it is another variable in the 2007 on-track mix.
Usually a racecar has to be a total pig before a driver will say in public and on-air what he really thinks of the car he’s fought all day to a less than grand finish. Dale Jr. didn’t throw his guys under the white-hot glare of the big TV eye (got them close enough to be singed though), but it was obvious that they “lost the handle” a few times and couldn’t find it again. In today’s Cup format, you can’t have very many off-days, because there is plenty of competition that isn’t.
When he was coming up at various short tracks, I remember seeing Jr. working on his car in Late Model infields (sometimes dirt and muddy) -- there wasn’t a bunch of Cup crew guys on “vacation” helping him set it up or tuning the engine. He turned the wrenches all over the car. He’s a throwback driver in that respect because his dad didn’t just hand him the keys to a Cup career. He knows what makes his car work and what doesn’t.
Yet, I ask myself – “What if Jr. were driving for Hendrick Motorsports and had Chad Knaus for his crew chief?” I have minimal doubt the mechanical consistency would improve. It looks like he and crew chief Tony Eury Jr. have regained some of the chemistry they had earlier in their union. But that was last year, before there were so many strong external distractions and forces yanking on them this coming season.
Looming on the horizon is the Car of Tomorrow (COT) which has forced the Cup teams to build two fleets of different cars for 2007 and extend their resources (spend more money, work people harder). Apart from the jacked up cost of building and switching rides in the middle of this season, how well are Jr. and his guys going to adapt it to the tracks – they have to basically instantly – they haven’t had time to really know this car on-track. “Well all the teams will have to do that,” you’re saying to me.
Sure they will, and I think that is one advantage that Jr. and Eury Jr. can bring if they can get focused: they have had to respond to extreme change before. Can they respond well enough? We’ll see. I’m thinking they will.
But only if they resolve that other condition grinding in the back of everyone’s minds -- getting Jr. re-signed with DEI. Everything else for the #8 and potentially for the survival of DEI hinges on this. There’s a half a million square feet of racecar shop space near Mooresville, NC, that could become a giant museum to the past and not a vital place for the future.
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Why is this man so intent? This is DEI new-hire Max Siegel, President of Global Operations and The Negotiator. He is the fulcrum point between both sides to get to “Yes.” (Kevin Thorne photo)
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The negotiations turned public and ugly when Teresa Earnhardt essentially said in the national press that Dale Jr. better decide whether he wants to be a celebrity or a racer. Dale Jr. acknowledged before the Daytona 500 this year that those words had cut deep. He has always been a racer, but now he is a star – and he knows it and doesn’t need to have his dedication questioned.
Kevin Harvick (not a good Southern boy) threw high octane Sunoco on the smoldering words when he called Teresa a “deadbeat owner” because she didn’t come to the track (like his owner Richard Childress). Gentlemanly Dale Jr. came to her defense and mentioned how much she has done with charity work and running the teams in very trying circumstances.
It’s easy to forget that some people thought that DEI would evaporate when Dale Sr. died. But it had Jr. (and Theresa) to keep it on track. And for it to continue to do so, it will require both of them again. As one long-time NASCAR participant told me: “We’re going to see just how smart Theresa is.”
She was smart enough to bring Max Seigel on board to get everyone on the same page. He’s going to earn every bit of his pay if he brings this off.