Heading into 2001, Kerry Earnhardt was on the precipice of breaking into NASCAR’s big leagues, having found success in a Dale Earnhardt Inc. ARCA program.
Everybody knows what happened next.
With [father Dale Earnhardt's death] in Daytona, everything changed around here,” Kerry Earnhardt said by phone Thursday from the DEI shop. “It’s just one of the things that happened to be in the works that got put to the side and never got brought back out until here recently, we started talking about doing some stuff.”
Does ‘doing some stuff’ mean a long-awaited DEI Cup ride for the 38-year-old, who has had journeyman experience in NASCAR’s top three series?
Earnhardt wouldn’t turn down a stroke of good luck.
“If the opportunity arises, I would definitely take advantage of it,” said Earnhardt, a team liaison for DEI. “And I would love to have that opportunity.”
The ways the stars are aligning, it isn’t out of the question. Mark Martin is off to Hendrick Motorsports next year. There is much speculation about Martin Truex Jr. leaving for another team in 2009. Reports have linked Paul Menard with a possible move to Yates Racing, taking father John’s home improvement chain sponsorship with him. And DEI has been unsuccessful finding full-time sponsorship for Regan Smith. The only driver who seems completely secure for 2009 is Aric Almirola.
Earnhardt isn’t throwing the current drivers under the bus, saying that DEI has a ‘pretty good stable’ while mentioning all by name. He added that his No. 1 immediate goal is helping the four Cup teams run better. But if anybody left, especially Truex, it may provide an opportunity.
More at Long Island Press
- Kerry Earnhardt’s stepfather dies
- Kerry Earnhardt to take over testing for Dale Jr. at Daytona
- DEI Testing at Kentucky on Tuesday
- Kerry Earnhardt joins DEI as liaison, will drive a few events
- Jeff Earnhardt tabbed for selected Busch races next year
So this is there attempt to save TEI!!
GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THATS ALL WE NEED IS 2 NON DRIVING EARNHARDTS IN THIS SERIES!!!!!!!!!!!!
What a joke!!
Would be a good choice for DEI as the entire team
will now be field fillers if Truex leaves.
I thinks its funny, except for the potential
wrecked race cars….
yeah because the man in 2nd isnt driving….
Great.
Another Earnhardt to get into NASCAR on his last name alone
dale proved himself, back to back nationwide chapionships, 18 wins, he isnt the best but he belongs, kerry… not so much
I wonder how much uproar there would be if Kerry comes in and totally Dominates Jr….
But honestly I don’t think that this is going to amount to anything, what I think it is is Kerry basically talked about how he wanted to be a Cup driver and how he would not turn it down, and then our resident “Expert” reporter from Long Island decided to take it into his own hands and report it as if something is actually in the works.
Maybe he is a Reggie Bush fan?
BTW Way off topic here, I am so going to name my kid Anonymous that way when people tell him or her to use their real name they can say they are… l0l
ROWDY BUSH wrote:
Thertru7h wrote:
May I remind you this topic is not about KYLE BUSCH
and you wonder why you posts get deleted!!!
Their is nothing wrong with Kerry, he is a great family man and has great kids.as for who he is he is still an Earnhardt, the first one may I remind you. just because he cant drive on a Cup level why dont you hope in a 200mph you armchair wanta be.
I’m going to have a heart-attack every time I hear “Earnhardt (K.)
into the wall!” thinking it’s Junior. >< lol
ROWDY BUSH wrote:
Wow, so 18 wins and two championships is not good enough? You better hope your baby shrub makes it to that level!
It is a good thing that dumbo ears can drive, because his personality would never get him a sponsor.
Back on topic, Kerry is a good man, but I doubt he will make a race on speed alone. Bad equipment and lack of cup experience will be his downfall. He has not fear but sometimes a little fear is not a bad thing.
Teresa, thank you for saying what I’ve been feeling for weeks. If Rowdy had an original thought or opinion it would soon doe of lonliness.
Rowdy, grow up or go away. You never have anything intelligent to add to the discussion. You just insult everyone else and make this forum a waste of time.
The worst thing about the internet is that it gives loudmouths like you an equal voice. If we could vote you off the island, you’d already to gone.
“die of loneliness”
Sorry.
LOL LOL JR NATION IN AN UPROAR RUT ROW,, SAM JUST TO LET YOU KNOW JR HAS 18 MINS AT THE CUP LEVEL AND NO CHAMPIONSHIPS AT THE CUP LEVEL, AS FOR RON THAT OLD MAN BETTER CATCH HIM AND I KNOW YOULL ARE BUSCH HATERS BUT HORNADAY DID GET LOOSE AND SLIDE UP INTO KYLE HARVICK THE OWNER OF THE TRUCK EVEN LATER ADMITTED THAT ON SMOKES RADIO SHOW, SO BLAME ON WHOEVER YOU WANT, BOTTOM LINE IS KYLE IS AN AMZING TALENT AND IM HE TO GIVE HIM THE CREDIT HE DESRVES WHILE YOULL ARE BUSY KISSING JR’S BUTT AND I ALSO LOVE IT HOW YOULL DONT CARE WHAT I SAY SO MUCH THAT YOU FEEL THE NEED TO RESPOND TO IT LOL THAT MAKES ALOT SENSE DOESNT IT
LAST NAME DOESNT DRIVE THE CAR, THE DRIVER DOES
I am really happy for Kerry, it is a shame that it took DEI this long to get him into racing. I know he is not the greatest driver, but their are quite a few of the 42 in the field who is not doing much at all. I think that DEI just ran out of options and he was the only one available
WELL ONCE AGAIN NOBODY LIKES MY POST AND PEOPLE SAY THEY DONT READ BUT YOULL RESPOND TO THEM, SO 88FAN LET ME CLARIFY FOR YOU I STARTED OFF SPEAKING ABOUT KERRY THEN EVERYONE CRIES ABOUT MY RESPONSES AND CHANGES THE SUBJECT SORDA LIKE YOUR DOING NOW, SO INSTEAD OF BEING A SUCKER LIKE THE REST OF YOULL AND DYING TO FIT IN AND WANTING TO BE A PART OF SOME SUCH AS JR NATION I HAVE THE ABILITY TO SPEAK FOR MYSELF, AND IF YOU DONT LIKE MY OPION THEN DONT READ MY POST, THERE WAS ONLY 1 AND ONLY EVER WILL BE 1 GOOD EARNHARDT DRIVER TO EVER EXIST AND THAT SR
IF MENARD STAYS AT DIE THAT WILL BE A TEAM OF 2 GUYS LIVING OFF THERE DADDYS NAMES, WHAT A SHAME
ROWDY BUSH wrote:
talking about spelling look at your post and all the words that are spelled incorrectly, this forum is about Kerry why dont you learn to read, its not about Kyle so go away
i say just delete 3/4 of these posts, they have NOTHING to do with anything..
AND TYPING LIKE THIS… JUST MAKES YOU LOOK LIKE YOUR 3
grow up
ROWDY BUSH wrote:
your probadly living off your mother,take a hike
I’m living off my parents, what’s wrong with that?
ROWDY BUSH wrote:
I’ll say it again…how many championships does busch have? Oh yeah ZERO!!! he doesnt have a championship in any divison for that matter LMAO…….
Lee88-20 wrote:
Wait all we talking Championships in general or just NASCAR top 3 championships?
DALE JR wrote:
Rowdy we know this is you and no Jr hasnt lived off his parents since he was old enough to legally work. You would not know about that kind of stuff because you dont take the time to check your facts before posting. Dale Sr did not hand money to his kids he made them earn it and when they started having problems with Jr they sent him to military school. As far as Kerry he was already raising a family of his own before he got to know Sr.
Dale Earnhardt junior is the greatest driver ever.
he’s won 2 (nationwide) championships!!
I mean that’s half as many as jeff Gordon
and 1 less than darrell waltrip!!
And those 2 (nationwide) champion ships were back2back!!
like omg he has like 18 (nationwide) wins!!
Yea dale jr is living of his last name.
To all you kb haters.
dale jr # of seasons: 9
wins: 18
kyle busch # of seasons: 4
wins: 11
yea who’s percentage is better.
game over
Since some were tragically born without the ability to sense sarcasm, my post was composed of entirely sarcasm
Thertru7h wrote:
Well, it alot harder to win races now then it was back in the early years soif you want to look
at it that way, I guess Dale is following in Sr’s footsteps because:
It took Sr 8 years to win 18 races.
Kyle has been lucky this season, and what I heard today Toyotas HP will be going away.
how has kyle been lucky?
he was unlucky to have a mechanic problem after leading hundreds of laps at bristol
he was unlucky to get pinched down by jr at Richmond when he was going to win.
he was unlucky at daytona after having clearly the best car and being the victim of a coupe at the end.
Seriously what has been lucky this season?
done even bother with daytona- he would have passed him on the backstretch anyway
just like I said lucky, The Toyotas have been winning everything but that will change I heard
very soon, and then we will see has his luck changes. Like Clint said any monkey can win in a
Toyota.
In the nationwide series, yes.
Not in the Cup series; things are much closer.
Kyle could have easily had an extra 2-3 wins this year.
I think people should just get over hating kyle because hes better than everyone elses driver.
(stats back it up so dont try and argue it)
New fans often have a tendency look back over the last few months and make grotesque claims on the basis of recent events. Yes, right now Busch is winning, and he has been the success story of the first half of the season. But drivers have done this before, and will do it again. If it turns out that the Toyotas have a power advantage, well, that will be addressed by NASCAR, and Kyle will have to get by with the same engine power that everyone else does. And, sooner or later, his luck will run out and he will get collected in someone else’s mess. Tires get cut. Pit stop sequences sometimes work against you. You get knocked out early from a couple races and things can change very quickly.
My point is that anything can happen. Chances are he’ll win the title this year. But the run he’s had won’t last forever. It never does And to call him the best is really premature. Let’s talk when and if he wins the title.
Thetru7h wrote:
Where have you been, do you even watch racing? they already know Toyota ahead in the Nationwide series and now they are looking at the Cup engines. they are more than the 22 Hp in the Nationwide Series. Nobody hates Kyle they want NASCAR to level the playing field.and hes not better hes is just on a hot streak. he has been around for ahwile now and never really won until he got in a TOYOTA. just look at last year.and dont blame it on Hendrick because you will be just going against what a good driver you say he is if equipment didnt matter.
Howie can you read?
Compare this quote from my post
“In the nationwide series, yes.”
to what you said
“Where have you been, do you even watch racing? they already know Toyota ahead in the Nationwide series and now they are looking at the Cup engines. they are more than the 22 Hp in the Nationwide Series.”
Same thing wouldn’t you agree?
Maybe Busch finally wasn’t being overshadowed by 2 championship winning drivers and was able to finally let loose and be himself without being the white collar driver Hendrick wanted him to be.
Plus him and Steve Addington are gold.
If Toyotas are so dominant, why cant Michael Waltrip or bill Davis racing manage top 20 finished consistently?
well because Toyota doesn’t have a significant advantage as many of you claim in the cup series.
Kyle is spankin them this year based on talent and a good legal car, get over it please. Thanks
because JGR and Red Bull get different engines from TRD than does MWR and BDR. and that is why AJ and Brian are even running well this season. and dont blame the envirorment at HMS for Kyle not winning because he would still be there if he wasnt such a jerk to his teammates. that is why they voted him out. the same reason Tony wanted out.
Thetru7h wrote:
The truth is Kyle had a great team with a top notch crew chief in first rate equipment but his stupid antics kept him from winning and contending for a championship and when your too much of a jerk to celebrate with your own brother for getting a win that says alot about your character.
This is Kyles 5th year in Cup and I have to admitt I am surprised to see him running this good. I hate to admitt it but everyone that gets in a Toyota wins in it and you have to wonder about that 20 Nationwide car too it does not matter who drives it. We all know from the dyno numbers that Toyotas have alot more horsepower and NASCAR took more motors on Friday and Saturday at Chicago and that some people on Speed have said that they have as much as 32 more horsepower in Cup and that next week they will be handing down changes. we will just have to wait and see. I hope that Kyle still wins after the changes.
Howie Motorsports Photography wrote:
really?
another one of your inside sources?
I highly doubt this to be the case
I dont have to have inside sources, I am here every week with the teams and anyone will tell you that. its not a big secret most people know know it including most fans.
So now I’m not a fan?
your probably right howie,
after all isn’t that what its all about for you?
I don’t care about NASCAR nearly as much as I used to.
Hope to see you out at IMS and maybe ORP too. I love right by the track so if your parking in somones yard there’s a chance its mine
love= live.
apparently my phone is tryig to speak for me
my apologies
sorry i dont pay to park
howie that’s some exceptional insight.
what about chassis?
do MWR, RBR, and BDR build their own chassis or does TRD do it?
Im fairly certain JGR build their own
but it would be interesting to see if the others do which may be a catalyst for their lack of performance.
Im not hating on busch,but before you jr haters that claim kyle is god all the sudden you better look at stats cause if you compare dale jr and kyles 1st 4 years in cup jr had more wins than kyle huh go figure so stop comparing him to the greats cause its a joke really.
Andrew wrote:
JGR and MWR have ther own chassis engineering departments but I dont know much about the Red Bull or Bill Davis teams.
I’m pretty sure TRD builds BDR’s Truck Chassis so I think they might build their Cup/NNS ones too.
I thought this part of the message board was about Kerry Earnhardt?????
Shawn wrote:
Just like any other blog someone goes off topic and everyone responds and even though Kerry is a good guy and i can say that since i have met him not related to racing but there isnt much else to say about the topic.
If red bull were
building their own chassis then
their progress is quite remarkable
Andrew wrote:
Well since Red Bull is owned by they’re sponsor they have the resources to do whatever they want.
Kerry is a nice guy but has never been that good of a driver. He’s been treated like crap most of his life. Is this opportunity a redemption for getting screwed or a sad commentary of how far DEI has fallen? Remember Billy Ripken? Probably not. He came from a famous baseball family. Billy’s career floundered while his brother Cal became baseball’s ironman. These guys are living proof of life not being fair.
“their”, sorry noticed the error after submitting
Don’t let the scrub lovers ruin this forum too - they leave a stink everywhere they go. Facts are: (1) the kid is a jerk, (2) yes, he’s a good driver, (3) yes, he’s been very lucky this year SO FAR, (4) he’s never won a championship in any division and chances are iffy he will this year (very difficult to win in the 10 race stakes), (5) NA$CAR has given the yotas something this year, when will they take it back, (6) the kid is a real jerk (see post race comments when his brother stole a win earlier this year).
There’s about 1,000 or so other things that could be pointed out but scrub could definitely use a trimming about the ears…
Getting Back on TOPIC,
Kerry Earnhardt will do Fine in Racing. He along with the rest of the racing field willl always be second back until NASCAR stops taking Money and playing Tag Team NASCAR.
This type of Stock Car Racing is NOT Racing today. It’s who has the most Money to pay off NASCAR, which this Year is the Jap CAR who has Paid NASCAR and JGR to buy their wins since they did nothing last year but wreck and end up last.
YES, Kerry Earnhardt ,will do just fine. He can drive a car, just like everyone else and it helps to have good equipment. You can see that in the drivers who have several Championships from the past years who ended their careers running in the BACK of the Field by having to drive Crap Equipment.
Good Luck to all the Earnhardts. They made RACING !! Along with the All the Families of Racing of the Golden Years.
Not the SOB of today who think God bows to them. Kyle Busch, He is worse than a bag of shit in a sewer of dead worms. NO values, no life and respect.
Go Luck Kerry !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
wow this is not about KB or Jr its about Kerry and he has never rode daddys shrit tales! his dad did’nt have any thing to do with him growing up! The guy had to go and and pound on his door and tell sr who he was.with seat time Kerry will do fine.
Kerry is a great guy/family man, and has never been given anything. He worked in a textile mill which for anyone has really worked, they know this is not easy job. He has never been gevin the silver spoon either, so maybe this will be his chance to make it.
This article is about Kerry!
NOT SHRUB “BABY SHRUB”
NOT JR
SO LEAVE THEM OUT OF IT!
Thanks Sam you hit the nail on the head
Mel wrote:
AMEN, you are so right.
Howie Motorsports Photography wrote:
Hooray, it went from a Kerry Earnhardt topic to a Toyota/kyle busch/ conspiracy. And Tony wanted out of JGR because he wants to be his own team owner. Brian Vickers is doing well not because of the toyota advantage, because of his own skill. Last year, he netted Toyota there first top 5, top 10 finishes. MWR and BDR are only suffering because of there mediocre roster of drivers and mis-management.
No, Tony did not want to be in a Toyota and thats why right after Homestead he was bound and determined to leave Gibbs and he when looking for something else and He met with Joe Custer and Chevy. If JGR was running Chevy he would still be there.Chevy gave JGR 5 million to get Tony back.
As far as Brian, he has been in Cup since 2003 and never showed anything.until now in a Toyota. He was 38th last year with the 1st generation TRD motor now he is 15th in points. that has to tell you something.
David with MWR is no mediocre driver, he has the abilities to be a champion in the cup series. and as far as management at MWR, Ty Norris is the best in the business. He worked at DEI during the good years.
Howie…you take pics for a living. I’ve been to a couple races, hung out with a lot of the guys. Never did I see any of them talking to someone who takes pics. You act like you know it all and I doubt that. Tony wanted to own a team. JGR is not willing to give up part of there empire to him. Plus you said that He wanted out of the Toyotas, again not true, he wanted out because he can’t win there anymore. He is being dominated by young guys. Thats why Logano is getting into the 20. JGR will not sign drivers who are past there prime, sorry to say but thats almost 1/2 the drivers out there.
Kyle fan wrote:
Really, I guess you go out with a lot of drivers, man you must be busy! as far as Tony you must be a fly on the wall and know something none of us know including Tony. Tony wasn’t looking for his own team at all. when Chevy found out that JGR was moving toward Toyota’s they did not like it that they were backing Tony and his open wheel teams and his race tracks and he was joining Toyota. so Chevy by the way of a CNC/Haas back in Nov. got Tony over there and made him a offer, you can have 50% of this company if you drive for us and bring sponsors and key drivers in. and Chevy will back your decision up and do what ever it can do to get you out of your last season with JGR. Tony walked through the doors and met with JD and Joe and ran the idea past them that he could own part of a team and asked them what they thought and they said we would like you to stay here but if that is what you want we dont want you to be miserable and make everyone here miserable for your last year of your contract. Chevy wrote JGR a 5 million dollar check to get there driver back .and if you think that Tony cant win with JGR anymore you totally wrong . Watch and See
Hey teresa88— get a grip, girl– the
earnheardts did not make racing as you
stated. That is the most stupid remark
in this whole topic. “make racing” lol,lol