It has been rumored that Dale Earnhardt Incorporated owner Theresa Earnhardt finally offered her star driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. 51% of DEI... at the cost of about $55 million.
Is she crazy? So, that means DEI is worth, roughly, $100 million. OK... so what's DEI worth WITHOUT Dale Jr.? $55 million is an insult. Earnhardt Jr. is the face of DEI. If he leaves, what will DEI be worth? It won't be $100 million, I can tell you that. After Dale Jr., you're left with a two-time Busch Series champion who has struggled at the Cup level and a rookie who finds it difficult to just qualify for races.
Dale Jr. is not the most talented driver on the circuit. That's a fact. But, he is the most marketable driver. That could be worth more than talent. It certainly is worth a lot to DEI.
Earnhardt Jr. is a car owner already. He owns JR Motorsports in the Busch Series with driver Mark McFarland. He also co-owned Chance 2 Motorsports, with Theresa, that won back-to-back Busch Series championships with Martin Truex Jr. Earnhardt is ready to step up to handle ownership at the Cup level. I doubt that he'd be doing most of the work anyways, but I'm willing to bet that he has some good ideas to get DEI into a championship contender.
Tell you what, Theresa. Drop the $55 million to $25 million and get rid of the independent arbitrator idea. This will guarantee keeping NASCAR's most popular driver with you and it will also keep Dale Jr. happy. This will also put the sponsors at ease and will be more inclined to sign with DEI if they know Dale Jr. is there for the long haul.
If this doesn't happen, how could you blame Dale Jr. for leaving DEI? The only way Dale Jr. will ever win a championship is with another team, and not with DEI. That's unless he can make the necessary changes at DEI to make it a championship contender once again.
No comments:
Post a Comment