Does it matter what Jr's # is?

Question

For all nascar fans. First of all, I like Dale Jr and I wished he could take the #8 with him to Hendricks. But think about this. He chose to leave DEI because he didn't get 51% ownership. Now he doesn't have any ownership at Hendricks, so what did that accomplish?

Second. When a driver leaves a team, they leave the number. Why can't he just accept the #5 or whatever Hendricks gives him? If he'd stayed with DEI he'd still be the #8 Budweiser Chevrolet. He made his choice, now he needs to accept the consequences. Again, I do like Jr.

Answer 1

I think Jr. will drive what ever # he gets. I don't think it's a matter of what Jr. will accept. The thing is, because he has such a big following, they are trying to incorporate the #8 in his new number for the fans (especially the ones with tatoo's). I think it's the fans that are not so accepting of the consequences, not Jr.

Go Jr.>>>>

Answer 2

I'm not worried about his number because it won't affect the season he has. As a fan, I'm curious what it will be of course, but not overly concerned with it.

Leaving DEI did accomplish something in my opinion. 51% ownership would have given him power to make decisions that he felt need to made. He didn't agree with the direction that DEI was going. Gettin 51% ownership would allow him to control that destiny. This of course did not work out, so he went with a team that he felt could give him the deal he needs to win races and championships. Although DEI could supply him with cars that could win races, I personally do not consider DEI a cup contender at this point and I'm not convinced they will be anytime soon.

I also THINK that he personally would not have a problem driving the 5 or 25. I KNOW a lot of his fans would throw a fit about it though. Personally, I would think that any driver that gets to run the #5 should be honored as that number means a LOT to Rick. I would bet dollars to donuts that his number has an 8 in next year though.

Answer 3

I think that Hendrick was better off for him in the long run because he has never liked his stepmother and he wanted majority ownership of a company that his father founded and it should belong and be ran by an Earnhardt and not so outsider like Teressa is. However, I am severely disappointed in the fact that Jr. cannot take the #8 with him to Hendrick Motorsports, and I am surprised that Teressa turned down such an offer to buy the number for quite a bit of money. Jr. has made a name for himself with the #8 and doesnt want to leave the number he started racing with and that all of his fans saw him race in. I applaud his decision to leave DEI as who wants to work with someone like Teressa who doesnt really understand what she is talking about and knows little to nothing about racing. I think that with that all being said and done, that he will accept Addias and Sony as his sponsors and use one of those numbers that have an 8 in it such as his Busch Series number so that his fans with tatoos dont have to get different ones. I think that he made a great decision and that Gibbs will no longer be any competition with Hendrick as they are switching to Toyotas and they are not performing very well and the cars may be similar with the COT but they are not equal by any means. So that is one less power house team that they have to deal with and they will be on top again and again until someone becomes a threat to them.

Answer 4

This Dale Jr fan does not care what his number is I'm a fan no matter what..He is just trying to please his fans, especially all the ones with the #8 tattoos. Jr loves his fans.. I wish he could have had the 8 also, but that is all water under the bridge now.. He made the right choice by leaving, and it will be a successful choice...Bring on 2008, no matter what your number is...I'm always a Dale Jr fan.

Answer 5

I truly enjoyed reading over some of the responses here, some of which are insane, others make sense. However, one needs to recall that Teresa Earnhardt married into the family, and granted was left in control of DEI after Sr's death. Understand, the number 8 holds a much greater family significance. Ralph Earnhardt initiated that number into NASCAR's ranks before Dale Sr. raced it early in his career before moving on to such numbers as 2, 15, 3, etc. With that said, Dale Sr's dream was to pass the patriarch's number on to his own son when he came to be full time in the cup series. It would be like taking the number 43 away from Petty Enterprises...can you say "second coming"? It is my opinion that blood is much thicker than water and Teresa Earnhardt's blood is about piss thin. There's no stock in her keeping the number other than to rub some salt in a fresh wound. Yet those fans of us who are educated, have heard Jr. state that he would have loved to keep the number 8, but with the stale mate reached with DEI also admitted that a new number might further enhance his fresh start at Hend(p)rick. (Hey, I can still hate the other bastards on that team and still root for Jr.) So it's my hypothesis that Dale Jr. will accept whatever number he's issued (by the way he has stated he has the number but probably won't announce it until the Texas race) and make it successful. The road to the future is long, and it is way too soon to say he'll never drive the number 8 again, but what he wants his fans to know is that he'll run whatever is given.

Also, I believe that if Dale Sr. new what his widow was doing to his beloved company, surly he would be rolling in his grave. Not that there's any concrete proof to verify, but it would seem the American Dream for every business owner to one day pass on that family tradition to his son. Dale Jr. will be successful with Hend(p)rick, but I firmly believe that Teresa Earnhardt is about to take a butt plugging that she's going to regret.

Answer 6

Dude, you don't know why Dale Jr. does what he does. Besides now he is affiliated with two racing teams. And the number thing. Don't be getting all sentimental. It's a job. The competition gets harder everyday. If you wanna be sentimental, you can also be a fan of the #1 car. At least Dale Jr. will still be driving Chevrolet. It's cool man, and I think Junior is gonna have a good year next year.

Answer 7

I like Jr. too but he should just drive the darn car and stop worrying about the number. The number on the side of the car will not make him go any faster.

Answer 8

D-I-G-N-I-T-Y Don't you think he deserves something? And he's said himself that the number doesn't matter. He was hopeing for number 8 and since it was his Grandfathers number, why shouldn't he have it? He deserves it! To me at this point it really doesn't matter which number he gets. Bottom Line: Teresa will end up losing simply because she's being mean. It's like what goes around comes around. NOBODY gains anything by being mean.

Answer 9

No it doesn't matter what his number is any more.

He left DEI because he didn't want "T' spending his money foolishly. So now he has winning cars for the next 5 years and Tony Sr and Tony Jr now works for JR Motorsports. Now JR Motorsports has a future.

And as to the last part Jr wants a number that he can have control of the money instead of letting it go in "T"s pocket.

Looking forward to the future to see how it all pans out.

Answer 10

I like jr too but people act like his driving skills will be effected by what number he drives. I saw a week ago where he was getting so sick of answering questions about it. I don't blame him.