- "DEI without Dale Jr. is a museum."
--Tony Stewart (May 2007)
They haven't replaced engine dynos and chassis bays with statues and paintings just yet, but Stewart's prediction for the future of Dale Earnhardt Inc. is close to becoming dangerously true.
Teresa Earnhardt's decision to not give her famous stepson 51 percent controlling interest of the company has resulted in a serious slide for the team the late Dale Earnhardt founded.
Last week's decision by Paul Menard to bolt DEI and bring his father's lucrative home improvement store sponsorship with him to Yates Racing is just the latest blow to the beleaguered team that only a year ago looked like it was headed in the right direction.
The Junior divorce was in the rearview mirror and after a merger with Ginn Racing, DEI was suddenly a pretty solid four-car stable.
The addition of veteran Mark Martin to the team brought instant credibility and some much-needed star power to DEI, which was left with solid but low-key Martin Truex Jr. as its anchor along with Menard and a duo of youngsters in Aric Armirola and Regan Smith.
But fast forward about a year and what seemed like a promising foundation has crumbled in a short period of time.
Martin will leave at year's end for Hendrick Motorsports with the No. 8's U.S. Army sponsorship headed for Stewart-Haas Racing and Ryan Newman in 2009. While Truex Jr. and sponsor Bass Pro Shops are locked in for 2009, Menard's departure leaves DEI with only Armirola and Smith, neither of whom has a sponsor for next season.
It's a situation that has thrown the company's management into a defensive mode of fighting the perception DEI is heading for the extinct list.
"What's killing me is the perception that's out there right now, and we've got to do something to overcome it," said DEI president Max Siegel.
"But there's nothing I can say or do short of bringing in a sponsor or winning on the track to change people's perception of this race team."
DEI came close to winning last Sunday at Talladega with Smith crossing the finish line ahead of Stewart at the checkered flag, only to be penalized for passing below the yellow out of bounds line.
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| Mark Martin brought credibility to DEI, but now he's bolting for Hendrick. (Getty Images) |
The showing was encouraging, saying the least, and impressed the departing Menard, who doesn't subscribe to the notion that the team will close its doors.
"DEI, they're going to be OK," he said. "They had strong race cars today, as you saw. They'll be OK in the future."
Talladega didn't surprise Siegel, who remains optimistic about the progress the team has made in just more than a year.
"I'm not going to pretend that we're contending with Roush and Hendrick," Siegel said. "But I can tell you that probably 75 percent of the other teams are trying to aspire where we are performance-wise. "And I clearly don't think that our employees and Earnhardt-Childress Racing Technologies (the joint engine development program DEI has with RCR) are getting the credit that they deserve. When we went into the offseason last year, our main objective was to improve our engines."
However, Siegel understands the gravity of the situation and how the lack of sponsorship funding will affect DEI's future.
That could include shrinking the stable from four to one car, if necessary.
"There are hard costs to run cars and some efficiencies when you run more cars," Siegel said. "We have to raise money to meet a budget. "We've been looking for more ways to become more efficient to give us more money to reinvest and we've also been looking for ways in the traditional sponsorship realm as well as other revenue-generating sources to invest in motorsports.
"We're just rolling up our sleeves and working as hard as we can to find the funding. We're going to run a fiscally responsible company."
But in this economy and with companies less and less willing to lay down tens of millions of dollars for a NASCAR race team sponsorship, particularly with a middle-tire team like DEI, finding that funding will be looking for the proverbial needle in a haystack.
Would things have been different if the most recognizable and popular driver in the sport had stayed with the team that was created for his future by his father?
Of course they would.
However, Teresa Earnhardt decided that giving up 51 percent of the company to anyone was too big a price to pay.
Now she's left with 100 percent of a team that unless some major steps are taken won't be worth anything at all.
