December 1, 2008
By Matthew Pizzolato
Matthew Pizzolato
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Dale Earnhardt Jr., leaving the company his father founded should have been a wakeup call for his stepmother and current owner of what's left of DEI, Teresa Earnhardt. The economy has taken a major downturn since his departure, but the fortunes of DEI have only gone downhill ever since.
In the struggling economy, companies with major sponsorships with NASCAR teams are abandoning ship and some teams are forced to merge with others just to stay afloat. For example, DEI has merged twice since the departure of NASCAR’s most popular driver, first with Ginn Racing and most recently with Ganassi Racing, not to mention joining forces with Richard Childress’ engine development program.
The number of cars the race teams are fielding has dropped too. Before this season, Ganassi and DEI ran a total of seven cars. Now that they have merged, the team will only race four and at this point still does not have a sponsor for all four cars.
Although, no official announcements have been made, Ganassi will most likely transfer from the Dodge organization it was with last season -- to Chevrolet, which is the current make and model of the Earnhardt-Childress Racing engine program.
Car owner Richard Childress was glad to see the merger and expects the newly formed Earnhardt-Ganassi team to use Chevrolet engines.
“It'll make them stronger for sure. If it's put together and works like ECR, it will be great. ECR has worked beyond all of our expectations,” Childress said in an espn.com article by David Newton.
However, the problem at DEI lies not with the struggling economy, but the current management. Look at what the addition of Tony Stewart has done for the Haas CNC team. Why would Teresa Earnhardt allow the most popular driver in NASCAR to get away? All she had to do was give her stepson the partial ownership he requested and DEI would most likely be one of NASCAR’s strongest teams.
Driver Paul Menard is also moving on from DEI and taking the sponsorship of his father’s company with him to Yates Racing, leaving DEI in a very bleak position.
On the other side of the equation, Tony Stewart’s team for next season, Stewart-Haas Racing, has acquired new sponsors, as a matter of fact, stealing the Army sponsorship away from DEI, and adding another popular driver in Ryan Newman. Office Depot and Old Spice will sponsor Tony Stewart’s car for next season, new acquisitions for a new team, providing an excellent example of what a popular driver can do for your racing organization.
Once a proud organization founded by NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt, DEI is not in a very good position for the future. It is a shame to see, but Teresa Earnhardt has no one to blame but herself.
Then again, there could be a solution from struggling NASCAR teams such as DEI. Maybe DEI should follow the example of auto giants, Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler by asking Congress for a bailout. If Congress can afford $700 billion for the financial industry, there must be plenty of money just laying around for struggling NASCAR teams. Surely, the American taxpayer would approve.
If you would like to learn more about Matthew, please check out his web site at matthew-pizzolato.com.
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