Dale Earnhardt, Jr, DEI contract update
Quote selected text Published February 8th, 2007 in NASCAR News
As was reported yesterday, representatives of DEI and Dale Earnhardt Jr. met on Wednesday to discuss Dale Jr.’s contract and ownership stake in the team.
DEI’s only comment was that the meeting was merely a ‘meet and greet’ with Dale Jr and his representatives and new DEI President Max Sigel.
No more information was released and these negotiations are likely to take several months.
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He tries to make a name for himself, yet can’t avoid the shadow cast by his famous grandfather and even more famous father. Comparisons are inevitable, whether fair or not, simply because of his genes.
Perhaps he reaches a point where he wonders if he’s gone as far as he can with his current team – and the family business, for that matter. If he is to be his own man, maybe the best thing for his future is to go out on his own.
While Dale Earnhardt Jr. is faced with the above scenario as he ponders whether to remain with Dale Earnhardt Inc., another driver with an equally famous racing surname knows exactly what Junior is going through.
After all, Kyle Petty experienced much of the same more than 20 years ago when he decided to leave Petty Enterprises and strike out on his own.
Granted, there are a few differences in their respective stories.
Petty didn’t have a stepmother with an iron-handed controlling interest in the team. And the younger Earnhardt isn’t faced with the same dilemma that contributed significantly to Petty leaving the family fold – there not being enough money to continue running a two-car operation.
Everything else being equal, Kyle can understand what Dale Jr. is thinking about these days – whether to re-sign with DEI or leave the family business to race for another team like Richard Childress Racing.
On one hand …
“I don’t think he has to leave DEI to get out from under his father’s shadow because I think he’s already out from under his father’s shadow.,” Petty told Yahoo! Sports. “I think he’s his own individual.”
But on the other hand …
“Maybe for him to establish who he is in his head, it’s important for him [to leave],” Petty said.
Making a decision to leave ultimately could be harder than the actual move itself. For Petty, all he ever knew was Petty Enterprises, a situation not too dissimilar to what the Earnhardt is facing.
“It’s different to go to a place and go to a group that’s not under the umbrella of where you’ve always been,” Petty said. “I grew up hanging out at this race shop. I grew up working on these race cars. I grew up driving these race cars. So then to go drive somewhere totally different, it didn’t even look like a race shop to me.
“[Dale Jr.'s] been the same way. He grew up with his late model stuff, working out of his father’s Busch shop, with the Eurys – Junior and Senior – and doing all that and then all of a sudden, boom, to go somewhere else, it’s going to be totally different if he does it.”
Dale Earnhardt built DEI primarily for Dale Jr., his sister Kelly, half-sister Taylor and half-brother Kerry and their respective futures. Likewise, Richard Petty wanted his son to continue the family business.
But without enough money to successfully field another car for Kyle, Richard Petty knew his son leaving the team might be the best thing for him in the long run.
So Kyle left Petty Enterprises following the 1984 season and spent four seasons driving for the Wood Brothers, where he earned his first two career Cup wins. He then jumped to Felix Sabates Racing in 1989, where he remained through the 1996 season, winning six races along the way.
“It was probably a real good [experience] for him,” Richard Petty said. “I think it got him out from the shadow of Lee Petty and Richard Petty and let him be his own man. It probably was the best thing to happen to him personally.”
Leaving the family for a dozen years actually helped Kyle, now president of and driver for Petty Enterprises, grow in a way that he might not have been able to had he stayed in the Petty camp.
“[Leaving] helped me a lot, because you have to make a lot of decisions – and they’re your decisions, they’re not a group decision,” Kyle Petty said. “I think when you go out on your own, the decisions you make are for you; they’ll be for Kyle Petty, they’ll be for Dale Jr. and his family and his future. I think it broadens your perspective.”
While leaving Petty Enterprises helped Kyle grow as both a driver and person, there is something missing: none of his eight career Cup victories came while driving under the family business banner.
Still, getting his prodigal son back was all that counted, Richard Petty insists.
“We were happy and he was happy when he returned,” The King said. “It was one of those deals where he sort of went and did his own thing and he was ready to come home.”
To which Kyle readily agrees.
“Yeah, you can go home,” he said. “Remember, the front door may be closed, but the back door is always open at home. That’s what I tell people all the time, you can go back. There’s nothing to say that Junior can’t leave and go back to DEI at some point.”
Junior, in fact, could leave and then come back and buy DEI sometime down the road.
“I think when you look at it from that perspective, I don’t think it should be that traumatic for him or racing in general if he does leave,” Petty said.
Perhaps making the decision whether to leave DEI even more difficult is the backlash Junior might suffer from his loyal fans – the same ones who have voted him NASCAR’s Most Popular Driver four years running.
Junior himself has said that he has earned many of those fans himself, but that he also inherited many from his father. And with that comes pros and cons.
“I feel for him in a lot of ways,” Petty said. “We lost a son and it’s very public. He lost a father and it’s very public. To go through that is hard in the first place. But to be in the position that he’s in, and the fans – as soon as Dale Sr. passed away, they expected him to be Dale Sr. I think he disappointed a lot of fans because he’s not Dale Sr.
“But at the same time, I think he won a ton of fans because he’s not Dale Sr. That’s a double-edged sword, too. You feel for the part, that struggle that he went through during that period of time. Now I look at him and I think he’s a fine individual and will be a great man because of the struggles he’s been through.”
The struggle now is a prolonged contract negotiation with stepmother Teresa Earnhardt. So what if Junior seeks out Kyle for some advice?
“I’d tell him straight-up, ‘Do what’s right for you. You’re always going to be Dale Jr. You’re always going to have the Dale Earnhardt name,’” Petty said. “‘If you think you can win races and be more competitive and not have half the headaches or be able to do this or expand your horizons by going to drive for Rick Hendrick, Richard Childress, Joe Gibbs or start your own deal, hey, give it a shot, dude.’
“‘There’s nothing wrong with giving it a shot in your early 30s. Don’t wait until you’re 45 and then look back and say, “I should have.” It’s always best to try than it is to look back.’”
PROVIDED BY: YAHOO SPORTS COLUMNIST JERRY BONKOWSKI
Sounds like Teresa Cruella de Ville is going to learn a lession the hard way from NASCAR’s Good-Old-Boys club. Without Dale Jr. DEI will go down the tube pure and simple.
Junior is what makes the organization happen. his brothers and sister are heir apparents. No other driver now or in the future will be able to inspire Dale Sr’s legacy in a comparable fashion.
Teresa needs to understand that we like Junior just the way he is. Maybe she should climb behind the wheel on number 8 and see how much sucess she has.
The kid grew-up in front of us and has finally matured into responsible adult. Teresa should have been mentoring the kids all along the way. Regardless, if Junior walks DEI will gradually fade. Maybe that’s ok, then JR and Kids can by Teresa out and bring the numder 3 to DEI.
I believe that Dale Jr. has matured a lot in the last few years and we support him in all that he does.
He is very competitive and will win races in the near future.
We have watched Jeff Gordon come up from the start and hope he will continue to win races.
We are very anxious for the season to start this Saturday and look forward to an exciting season.
I am not sure Teresa really wants Jr. to be in the picture. Oh she is listening to the
public and her advisors, but she has never proven to me that she wants him there. There have
been too many remarks and comments from her in the past. I don’t think she has really
supported Jr. from the beginning. Of course, I could be wrong. Wouldn’t be the first time.
MEDIA,MEDIA,MEDIA. Come on race fans,we’re anxious to get racin again.What better story to get things started than a dispute between Teresa and Dale Jr. I’ve allways been an Earnhardt fan so lets face it,Teresa is no dummy. I think she’s doing the very thing Earnhardt Sr. would want her to do. Do you remember the IROC race when Sr.&Jr. were side by side coming to the finish line.Sr. wouldn’t budge and won. Afterwords in victory lane he said(with a huge smile on his face)he was’t going to give it to him,he was going to have to earn it. I think alot of media hype has gone into Teresa’s comment about Jr. having the choice to be a race car driver or a public personality.On the track, Sr. wasn’t one for suger coating things eigther. After all, Jr. aproached Teresa with this whole thing first. I think she knew Sr. better than anyone and is just replying to Jr. You’ve always got a home.