What Does Earnhardt's Future Hold?
Dale Jr. Still Has Loose Ends to Tie up at Hendrick Motorsports
Earnhardt the Younger must still sort out many things before settling in with HMS -- his crew chief, his Budweiser sponsorship and the very number his car will sport.
Several questions continue to surround Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s future with Hendrick Motorsports.
In the wake of last week’s announcement that Junior will next year join the Nextel circuit powerhouse it remains to be seen if crew chief Tony Eury Jr. will join Dale at Hendrick, or whether long-time sponsor, Budweiser, will re-establish its relationship with HMS.
And now a trial balloon is being floated concerning whether Hendrick can procure Dale Jr.’s No. 8 from Dale Earnhardt, Inc., the racing team Junior is leaving. Lastly, there’s the question concerning the HMS driver young Earnhardt is replacing – Kyle Busch.
What Will Eury Do?
Perhaps the most critical question for the sake of fielding the best race car team possible is whether Dale Jr.’s crew chief will be able to follow him to the Hendrick squad.
Eury will remain under contract with DEI even after Junior leaves the team founded by his famous dad, the late Dale Earnhardt Sr. At first, it appeared as though Eury would follow the younger Earnhardt to HMS. But now the situation has been muddied a bit.
Max Siegel, Dale Earnhardt, Inc. president of global operations, said everyone is still obligated to the team.
"Tony Eury Jr. and I are scheduled to have ongoing discussions about his future," he said. "We've been pretty upfront about it from the beginning. We have a season to complete here and we have a commitment to finish it out strong."
Not nearly as open-ended as last Wednesday when Junior and Hendrick announced their new deal when at the time, Siegel said they wouldn’t force Eury to remain at DEI as long as "a mutually beneficial transitioning strategy" was in place.
Eury – who was very close to Junior’s legendary father – has an extremely close working relationship with the younger Earnhardt.
Which Bud’s for You?
Although Budweiser has a personal services contract with Junior through 2008, it likewise is a corporate sponsor of DEI’s operation.
"Budweiser is still one of our corporate partners," declared Siegel. "We're still under contract with them until 2008. We haven't had any discussions with them stating anything different." He went on to say he hoped to maintain some kind of relationship with Bud after the current agreement expires following the 2008 season.
HMS had a corporate sponsorship agreement with Bud in the 1990s. But Anheuser-Busch spokesman Brian Eaton said Budweiser’s parent company hasn’t had any discussions with either Earnhardt or his sister, business manager Kelley Earnhardt Elledge, regarding negotiating a new contract with HMS.
“As far as sponsorships … we haven't began to work around that and see what the options are and opportunities are for us and that's something we'll work [out] down the road,” Junior said last week.
Hendrick said there’s much to sort out.
“We have several sponsors on our cars that are multi-year deals. And I guess my first responsibility is to those people, and we've got to look at how the teams are going to look at the end of the year … what spots on those cars are available and where they want to be,” he remarked. “We had to wait until we got this deal done and then look at what their commitments are and what our commitments are, and [then] make it all mesh. We hopefully will get that done here in the next few months.”
Calling No. 8
The car Kyle Busch is vacating is the No. 5 car, while HMS teammate Casey Mears pilots the No. 25 car. But it’s fairly clear Junior would prefer to keep his current No. 8.
“I'd like to be No. 8, but you know, we have to obviously talk to [DEI owner] Teresa [Earnhardt, Junior’s stepmother] about that and see what her interest is there,” Earnhardt said. “I'll just go ahead and throw that out there.”
Hendrick said he’d consider trading the No. 5 emblem for the No. 8, but Siegel said DEI would probably demand some money for it.
"If someone makes a formal request, we'll entertain it," Siegel said. "But it has to be a scenario that makes sense for everyone," adding that he’d come up with “a recommended figure for his owner."
Hendrick seems willing to pony up some dough.
"We haven't talked but we'd certainly be interested in that," he told media members Sunday.
The Other Busch -- Not Anheuser
Siegel said last weekend that he’d definitely be interested in replacing Junior with Kyle Busch.
"He's an incredible talent," he said. "Our list of potential drivers really hasn't changed…we would like to talk to Kyle Busch."
Having pulled two stunts recently that didn’t reflect well upon HMS Busch may have been forced out the door, although Hendrick put the best face possible upon their severing the relationship.
“It became pretty obvious to both of us that maybe a fresh start might be good for both of us,” said Hendrick. “He had unbelievable opportunities. We decided it would be good for him to pursue those and me to be able to pursue this opportunity with Junior.”
