June 22, 2007
By Rebecca Gladden

Rebecca Gladden

There have been myriad reactions to Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s blockbuster press conference last week announcing his move to Hendrick Motorsports starting in 2008.

Among the most perplexing to me is the one that goes like this: Finally! It's going to be Jeff versus Junior! They'll be in the same equipment! Now we can truly see the Gordon versus Earnhardt rivalry in all its glory. As SpeedTV's Dave Despain wrote, "This, then, is Gordon-versus-Earnhardt, Part Two...equal equipment, five years to decide it...who's better...Jeff or Junior?"

Junior himself attempted to fan the flames a bit in the press conference saying, "I think that I'll still have that in me, just as an Earnhardt, you know, to beat Jeff Gordon. It's always been there in the sport and I think that will continue to be there."

But the promise seemed halfhearted at best.

If Junior's move to HMS was meant to say anything, the clear message is that he wants to be - and now is - his own man.

Ultimately he doesn't answer to anyone any more. Not to his friends, his teammates or his sponsors.

Not even to his fans.

And certainly not to his stepmother.

But beyond that, Junior has definitively declared, "I am not my dad."

Junior bypassed an opportunity to drive for his dad's old boss, Richard Childress, opting instead for the one team that many Earnhardt fans despise with a passion.

The Gordon-Earnhardt rivalry, to the extent that there ever really was one, existed between the 3 and the 24 and their respective fans.

Dale Jr.'s nature, and the driving style it produces, simply does not lend itself to intense rivalries the way his father's did.

Junior is cautious, less impatient, more methodical. He may be intimidating in the rear-view mirror, but he is not The Intimidator.

As to Gordon, he's had more rubs with Tony Stewart, Matt Kenseth and even teammate Jimmie Johnson than he's ever had with Dale Jr.

And it's a different era for Gordon and Junior than it was back when he and Senior traded paint.

Today's politically correct NASCAR is more kiss-and-make-up than kick-a-guy's-butt.

When drivers retaliate on the track, they are fined and docked points for aggressive driving. When they retaliate off the track, they are threatened with arrest and sent to anger management programs.

But if you're still convinced that this move will lead to a renewed Gordon-Earnhardt rivalry, imagine for a moment the closing laps of a race in which the two teammates are competing side-by-side for the win. "I'm going to ask them to be nice and don't wreck each other," said Rick Hendrick when posed this scenario.

Rivalry indeed.

Back in 2004, when he was free to talk smack about Jeff if he wanted to and foster as much ABG animosity as he dared, Earnhardt Jr. and Gordon appeared together on Larry King Live.

Asked about Gordon, Dale said, "I'll have you know, as I'm growing up and potentially looking at opportunity in Winston Cup over the years, maybe four, five years ago, I honed certain parts of my driving style after Jeff Gordon. Because at that time he was dominating the sport. I think that he showed everybody - a lot of drivers - that a thinking man's type of race car driver can win races, and the guy that knows, like he said, knows when to be aggressive. So I've kind of honed my skills the same way."

In the same interview, Gordon said this about Junior: "I think what makes a great race car driver is a smart race car driver, somebody that knows how to really think fast and have those instincts. And you know, the guys that are at the top all have it, and Dale's certainly one of those guys."

Wow, them's fightin' words, aren't they? If rhetoric like that doesn't ratchet up the "rivalry," I don't what will.

Face it, folks. Gordon versus Earnhardt was yesterday's news. Dale Junior is not Dale Senior and never will be.

And frankly, given their respective records, there is no competition at this point between the two. Though Gordon is only three years old than Junior, he's been racing at the Cup level for seven more years. Gordon has 79 wins and four championships; Earnhardt Jr., 17 wins and no championships.

And, by the way, two-time champ Tony Stewart, reigning champ Jimmie Johnson, recent champs Matt Kenseth and Kurt Busch, and many other top drivers in the series would like to remind you that they will be on the track next year, too, and in the years to come.

"Gordon-versus-Earnhardt, Part Two," might be the marketing department's dream fight card, but as Dale Jr. points out, "We always race each other with respect. I've never driven dirty with Jeff and never spun him out or anything like that." And that was when they were supposedly driving for rival teams.

But as Earnhardt Jr. also points out, "I never really looked at Hendrick Motorsports as our arch rival or nemesis or whatever. We competed against them and they were one of the best competitors over the years obviously. They set the mark for most if not all the teams, at least the Chevrolet teams. But I always looked at the Fords and the Roushes and those guys as more of my competitors (that) I had more interest in outrunning and beating."

With Earnhardt and Gordon now under the same roof, whatever rivalry there supposedly was between them will fizzle like a campfire in a rainstorm.

I predict there will be more action in the stands among their fans than between these two teammates on the racetrack.

The thoughts and ideas expressed by this writer or any other writer on Insider Racing News, are not necessarily the views of the staff and/or management of IRN.