Earnhardt, Jr doesn’t plan on leaving DEI ‘anytime soon’
Quote selected text Published December 16th, 2006 in NASCAR News
The sometimes strained relationship between Dale Earnhardt Jr. and his stepmother just took another twist.
Teresa Earnhardt, the wife of the late Dale Earnhardt and owner of Dale Earnhardt Inc., questioned her stepson’s commitment as a Nextel Cup driver in a rare interview published in Thursday’s Wall Street Journal.
Asked about Earnhardt Jr.’s future with DEI after his contract expires following the 2007 season, she told the newspaper, “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.”
Earnhardt Jr. declined to respond, according to DEI spokesman Mike Davis.
But NASCAR’s perennial most popular driver has given no indication he plans to leave the organization anytime soon.
“I’d love to take over DEI,” he said before the 2006 season. “Me and Teresa will talk about that when the time comes. We’ll talk about that before the time comes, but that’s not in the near future.”
Richie Gilmore, the director of motorsports for DEI, said in August that informal negotiations to re-sign Earnhardt Jr. were ongoing.
“We talk about it all the time,” he said. “It’s very complicated when you work with Dale Jr. and Teresa because there’s so many different parts to it. It’s his dad’s business and it’s complicated.
“I know Teresa wants it to be Dale Jr.’s and Kelley’s and Kerry’s [all children of Earnhardt] someday because that’s what Dale built it for and that’s in the long-term plans.”
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she’s just mad because she isn’t in the spotlight
Well, it’s probably that time of the month for her.
just thought I would add my two cents worth as u call it .. I don’t know how she thinks
she can just get rid of Dale Jr. nascars most popular driver and the best there is as far
as I am concerned .She must be just jealous because he is the most popular and she isn’t .
His Fan base is something else she better hang onto him because he will be the next nextel
cup champion and she will be sorry if she doesn’t that company belongs to Dale Jr. and his
siblings and should be left to them is she doesn’t want it .If she wants out she well leave
and let Dale Jr. run it the way it should be run .
This is one reason Teresa has always been on my bad side. I have never understood this woman (or people like her - Yoko Ono, anyone?), and I probably never will.
I know this is all really horrible of me to say, but I think Teresa has gotten a little full of herself. Being such a famous widow must have gone to her head, poor thing! Maybe she was like this before he died, or maybe it’s happened since the doors opened for her after his death, I don’t know, but it’s sickening to me. Time for her to get a wake-up call and realize that just because she is Dale Earnhardt’s widow, that does not make her - or any other “famous widow” - special.
She also needs to keep her nastiness to herself or else she’s going to get a huge dose of karma - and you know Junior fans will be sure she does! If she has such a problem with Junior, then she needs to hand over his father’s company to him. In my opinion, it should have gone to him in the first place - just because she was married to Dale does not, in my opinion, mean she is allowed to treat his kid(s) like she does or grab at anything that has the Earnhardt name attached to it. She’s not Dale’s wife anymore, and she needs to realize that and move the heck on with her life.
Stop trying to be the Yoko Ono of NASCAR, Teresa!
Oh, and I agree with the assesment that she is jealous of Junior. I think she knows he is more loved and respected than she is. Must just kill her to know that. LOL
It needs to be Jr.’s, he IS the legacy… she just needs to go ahead and give it to him if she wants him to have it. She just wants to cause trouble to get in the spotlight.
Just a quick correction to several of the comments made here, DEI does NOT belong to Dale Jr. or any of the other Earnhardt siblings. Dale Sr. and TERESA Earnhardt built and paid the bills to get it going and the Widow Earnhardt still signs the checks. Jr. works for her.
If Teresa follows tradition, DEI will one day be an inheritance to the Earnhardt children. However, at this point, if Jr. wants to be kept on as an employee, he has to meet the expectations of his contact, just like any other driver for any other owner. Many many many Jr. fans insist that Jr. has not been given his ride simply by the wind-fall of his last name, well, think of this as a way to prove that.
The bottom line is, if Jr. is as good as he is rumored to be, he will have no problem getting his contract renewed or if he wants to drive else where, finding a ride. But as for an owner “handing over” a business that she and her late husband built? Not if she’s got any sense at all!
I’m sure that any other house (RCR, anyone?) would love to have Jr.
driving for them. The publicity alone is worth millions, plus you
have to realize that he HAS made the chase 2 times in past 3 years, so
it’s not like he is not productive. DEI was created by Sr. and Teresa,
true, but it is Jr’s name on the door as well, and she is not creating
a very good place to work. Keep it up. You will only have Truex Jr.
working for you, and while he does have talent, DEI will start to lose m
money just on endorsements. Bottom line, Jr. has both talent and clout.
His is the “cash cow” of NASCAR, and while it was his daddy that put
it on the map, it is the Dale Jr.’s, the Tony Stewart’s, the Matt
Kenseth’s that keep it there.
Dale Jr in the #3 at RCR! I’m cool with it.
A quick correction to that correction , Junior does own part of DEI, 40% to be infact. This is what makes it seem skeptical that he will leave DEI, but it would aid him if he wished.
Well i dont know what is going to happen nor does anyone else.. But Jr just finished 5th in his second chess 4 the cup.. So if she gets ride of him.. she is dumb.. Hes the hotest thing out there.. That team had some babd luck like at talledega. But That guy is going to win a championship..
Face it Jr. is the most popular driver in the series. But far very far from the best. At this point in there careers there are 6 current drivers that have won at least one championship. Jr. has yet to come close. There are several who have come much closer at a much quicker span of time. Jr. is the most marketable and popular driver in the series. He can pay the bills and keep great sponsorship at DEI, but win a championship don’t count on it.
Doesn’t really matter if Jr. owns 40% or 2%. Am I the only person that remembers that Sr. drove for RCR until Daytona 2001, while
still owning DEI? It’s not an impossibility. And he (Jr.) has said that he is open to the idea of driving for Childress. Personally,
I think that he is the only one that should ever drive a #3 again in stock car racing. AND working for a house like Childress, maybe
he will have a better shot at the Championship.
And what about Kerry? Does he own any of DEI?