1. Those who are expecting another Mikey Waltrip situation if Jr. does
decide to be his own team owner, while it's not metaphysically impossible
for Jr. to fall on his face and bomb out here, there's a BIG difference
between the two situations. Jr. wouldn't be putting together a team
virtually from the trashcans up for an unproven manufacturer, and it looks
like he's going to be getting an awful lot of stuff from Hendrick, who's
about as proven as it gets right now on the circuit. If he's going to be
getting engines and chassis from Hendrick, as has been rumored, then excuse
me for being conspiratorial here but I smell the possibility of an
under-the-table, behind-the-scenes or whatever you want to call it R&D and
info sharing setup between JR and Hendrick (mmmm ... that would be an
interesting way to bypass the impending car limits for teams, wouldn't it?).
Other than money, and I think Hendrick is pretty well stocked along those
lines, that's the only benefit I could see Hendrick getting from providing
somebody who could be an awfully stout competitor with that much hardware.
Oh, another big difference in the Jr. and Mikey situations ... Jr.'s a
better driver.

2. Those who are saying nasty things about Teresa Earnhardt ... Dale Sr.,
may he rest in peace, talked about building DEI as something he could leave
for his kids. I've seen those quotes. But at the same time ... who did he
leave in control of the place, without anything specifically set down or in
writing, as far as I know and please correct me if I'm wrong, as to when it
might get "left for the kids?" Just something to think about.

3. Does anyone really think, given the heat that this is going to provoke if
it plays out as it's supposed to tomorrow, that Jr. will be driving the DEI
car by the time everybody gets to Homestead in November? I may be wrong, and
if I am I'll be back here to take my medicine, but I will be stunned if this
thing doesn't reach critical mass by Daytona in July and Junior's driving
for somebody else, whether it's his team or not. There's more than
two-thirds of the season left, this is all everybody's going to be talking
about and focusing on for the rest of the year, and again, given the
circumstances I don't see how the Jr./DEI relationship is not going to
implode before the end of 2007.

Greg Bailey wrote:
It's obvious that this is sort of a "nudge, nudge, wink, wink" thing
where Hendrick adds two drivers to their stable without violating any rules.

Kinda makes you wonder if there was more to the
getting-into-Busch's-ride thing, eh?

I doubt that Earnhardt would have left it to his gold digging whore of a
wife if he had known he was about to assume room temperature. I think he
thought he would end half a dozen others' lives before someone could end
his, and it's pretty much common sense that DEI was left to his wife
because he wasn't able to foresee his death and make his will reflect
his true wishes.

You don't see this kind of action in other sports. That's what makes
NASCAR so great.

-Thomas

On May 10, 5:04 am, Thomas <wha... (AT) gmail (DOT) com> wrote:

Good point.

This is a long story -- but -- the short version is this -- close
friend of mine from high school and Vietnam is a big-time attorney who
specializes in continuity of business. He tells me that he deals
every day with situations in which the founder of a business suddenly
dies or is incapcitated and there is no succession plan for the
business -- the business founder figured he was immortal and never
gave a thought to what happens to the business when he dies -- or, if
the founder did anything, it was not enough to keep the business
going. Family members typically are the worst people to take over a
family business when the founder dies. .

Grim Reaper wrote:

Theresa was always a co-owner of DEI... and it's first employee.

Precisely. And the Dale Earnhardt Sr. of 1996 when DEI formed was not some
dumb country boy who was being led around by the nose by anyone and
certainly not his Mrs., he was a sharp as a tack, savvy businessman who
probably didn't move a paper clip without considering all the options and
how it would affect the big picture. I doubt he thought he was going to live
forever ... I've seen some quotes that could be taken as him having a couple
of premonitions that he might go out the way he did ... and I of course
wasn't privy to him conducting business, but the evidence on the table is
pretty compelling that he knowingly and willingly left Teresa Houston
Earnhardt in control of DEI should something happen to him. I'm not sitting
in judgment of that, and I have no great love for Teresa, I've poked fun at
her and called her "The Widow Earnhardt" on this forum before. I'm just
pointing it out to the people who are on Teresa's case.

And I would also ask them to look at this unemotionally from a business
standpoint, and to act as if we weren't talking about racing but some other
line of work. What would you do if you had been left in charge of a
mega-million-dollar business enterprise by your husband, and one day your
husband's son from another marriage, who is in his early 30s now and seems
to be maturing and getting his head on straight which is to his immense
credit, but for a lot of his life was a party animal prone to drink and
raise hell and chase jailbait, which probably added to his popularity in one
sense and with one element of the public, but also reached the point where
in at least one instance (Vegas a couple of years ago, if you believe that
column in the Las Vegas Sun about what he was doing the night before the
race) it legitimately affected his job performance, walks in and says, "I
want 51 percent of the business." How many people here would say, "OK,
here's the keys."

"Vandar" <vandar69 (AT) yahoo (DOT) com> wrote

Greg Bailey wrote:
I'm wondering when that decision was made and how often it was revisited
while DR Sr was alive? DE Jr was gaining knowledge of both the track
side and business side day by day. As of 2001, DE Jr wasn't anywhere
near as knowledgeable as he is today.

"Greg Bailey" <nowhereman (AT) nowhereland (DOT) org> wrote

this outcome was inevitable. Frankly, I'm surprised that this is happening,
as it shows a lack of business acument that Teresa has long been shown to
have. Certainly, she can't be completely blamed for this - there are 2
sides here. But, I do believe that DE Sr. would not have let this happen -
no way, no how.
j

On Thu, 10 May 2007 01:04:09 -0500, "Greg Bailey"
<nowhereman (AT) nowhereland (DOT) org> wrote:

You got that right. I tend to think that that isn't saying much to
compare to MW, but Jr IS better than a lot of drivers.

Nobody knows when they are going to die. Sr. probably Jr. wasn't
mature enough to be in charge yet and didn't put his wishes in
writing.

I think DEI will implode in that same timeframe. With Jr., it is a
stretch to think DEI is a 110 million dollar organization. Without
Jr, it surely is worth a LOT less.

Maybe they can hire MW back.


--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

That's where the loss of Sr. really hurt ... Sr. would've been spending the
last six years teaching Jr. the ropes, not of how to drive a race car but
how to run business of the scope of DEI. I think Jr.'s maturing process
would've started a lot sooner if Sr. hadn't bought it, because Sr. (who was
no stranger to partying in his day) would've told him, "Look, you want to
act a fool and be a kid your whole life, or you want learn how to run this
multi-million-dollar business I'm trying to build for you, your brother and
sisters? Your choice."




"Mike Smith" <mike_z (AT) excite (DOT) com> wrote

Greg Bailey wrote:
Looking at it without emotion, anyone who wouldn't give him what he
asked for is a fool.

49% of something huge is better than 100% of nothing.

-Thomas