DALEThis Sunday’s Ford 400 at the Homestead Miami Speedway will be the final race in the the Dale Earnhardt Jr. chapter at Dale Earnhardt Incorporated. It in my opinion will also be the final race for the number eight Budweiser Chevy. No matter who drives the number eight car from here on out, it will never be the same as when Dale Jr. drove it.

I feel sorry for the driver who is the first to drive the number eight car after Jr. gets out of it this Sunday. Unless a lot of time passes between those two events, The “Junior Nation” will Hate the guy! You think that the beer can throwing was bad at Jeff Gordon? Wait till you see what happens to the poor soul who gets into the eight car next. I’m not saying that there will be stuff like that happening, just that the potential for it will be there like never before.   

Dale Earnhardt Junior fans are rabid about the guy and they won’t see it any other way other than the new driver of the eight car is a loser and they wont tolerate him at all. There is only one scenario that may keep the fervor down and that is of another Earnhardt is the next one to drive the eight car. Kerry’s son, Jeffrey Earnhardt is under contract with DEI right now. That, at this time, is the only person other than his father Kerry, who could drive the eight car and not get the least bit of crap for it.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. started racing in the “Cup Series” Back in 1999. He had Five starts and one top ten that year. His career stats at DEI are 290 starts, 17 wins,76 top fives,121 top tens, 41 DNF’s. His average start up to today is 16th and an average finish of 16th as of today. Junior has led 5485 laps to date in his career and accumulated 37911 points to date, and won $41,170,178. These are some really great stats to not have a championship yet.

You have to have respect for your team owner and it became apparent during the months leading up to the big announcement that there were strained relations between Dale Jr. and his step mother Teresa. Earnhardt’s decision to leave DEI is the latest chapter of his long-running feud with stepmother Teresa Earnhardt, who inherited control of the team when her husband died in a last-lap crash at the 2001 Daytona 500.When asked what his stepmother’s reaction was when he told her the news, Earnhardt said, “she wasn’t surprised.” In December, Teresa Earnhardt, who rarely grants interviews to the media, told the Wall Street Journal that “right now the ball’s in (Earnhardt Jr.’s) court to decide on whether he wants to be a NASCAR driver or whether he wants to be a public personality.” Earnhardt responded angrily during January testing at Daytona International Speedway, saying his relationship with Teresa “ain’t a bed of roses” and had been chilly since his childhood. A few weeks later, at a news conference a week before the Daytona 500, he said he wanted majority ownership of DEI as part of a new deal. When talks broke down Dale Junior had no choice but to leave the business that his father started and look for a ride elsewhere.

I am not sure whether or not there will be any special paint scheme on the Budweiser Chevy sunday, or whether it will be talked about much during the broadcast as Nascar.com hadn’t run anything on it yet when I wrote this. I guess its a big story to me though. I have been a Dale Earnhardt Junior fan since Dale Earnhardt Senior Died and Mark Martin said that he was going to retire. ( Is he?) I will be glued to the Television Sunday, watching and hoping that The number “8″ car can get one more win going out the door. After Sunday’s race you can close the door on the Number “8″ chapter in Nascar because no matter if someone else drives it, It will never be the same! It would get retired along with the “3″ if I had my way about it. If you want to see how they will start the race Sunday check Nascar.com for the starting line up. And look here for the post race review. Maybe I will be extremely happy.

Have a great week and keep on trucking!