September 30, 2005

By Carol Einarsson

Since Tuesday I’ve heard from nearly every Dale Earnhardt, Jr. fan that has a computer. So let me take a moment to say: I have no beef with Junior. Dale, Jr. that is.

Tony, Jr. is another story, and that is where this misunderstanding has come in.

Here’s a guy that gives his word (on a handshake, even, as reported by Michael Waltrip) that he is dedicated to staying with Mike until the end of the year. Only, of course, if the “end of the year” counts as mid-September.

I commented that Tony, Jr. had “stolen” a car for Junior (Dale, that is) to use. Many of you questioned how he could steal something he built? Lots also mentioned that the car belongs to DEI, and DEI used it, so what’s the problem? Still others asked why I didn’t say anything about the borrowing of cars over at Roush.

First, unless Tony, Jr. has a Superman cape hidden under his uniform, he did NOT “build” that car. I’m pretty sure all the guys who DID are a tiny bit irked at the assertion that Tony single-handedly built that car, thus it should follow him wherever he goes.

What about the TEAM, people? What about all the guys on the 15 TEAM that worked on that car? They get nothing out of it because the guy who was their leader defected and took their work product WITH him? It’s not about Michael Waltrip. It’s about that TEAM that Tony left.

When DEI switched teams, they all went together. And they got to take their cars. THEIR cars. That THEY built. It was a TEAM swap, y’see? Not just one guy up and leaving and then taking something in which the entire team had vested interest.

I think if a guy decides to defect from one team to another, there should at least be some consequence. The consequence is that if you go, you go to a new team and take nothing from these other men except their bids of farewell. If Tony, Jr. wants to lead the 8 team, then I think he should lead the 8 team and use what they’ve built.

This wasn’t a matter of “sharing” cars as they did over at Roush. I don’t think Jack is playing favorites (where DEI clearly is), and if two teams come to a decision to loan a car, that’s fine. A team, with its leader, deciding to give a car to a teammate is a lot different, the way I see it, than one guy going back to a team he’s quit, and saying, “Oh, by the way, I’d like to take that car y’all built, too.”

Last week Robby Gordon said that Michael Waltrip is not the nice guy everyone thinks he is. And I think that can be said of Tony Eury, Jr. Am I the only one that still remembers when he cost Junior a nice second place finish last year (or maybe the year before) by telling him that if he didn’t try and pass the leader, he was no race car driver? So, against his better judgment, Dale took the instruction that he was guilted into, and wound up finishing somewhere a lot further back, maybe out of the top 20?

It is NOT Dale, Jr. that has me peeved, folks. I like him. And I will probably always like him. It’s that mom thing, remember? But when something bad happened to that car that his crew chief stole, I was a little pleased that Tony, Jr. got what I felt he deserved.

It’s never been about Dale, Jr., but unfortunately he’s got a cousin who seems to have an ego the size of Talladega.

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