Will DEI Survive?
It appears as if the "chickens have come home to roost" for Teresa Earnhardt and Dale Earnhardt Inc. With Paul Menard's departure following the 2008 season — and the subsequent departure of his sponsorship to Yates Racing — that leaves DEI with three of its four cars without sponsorship for next season. Martin Truex Jr.'s No. 1 is the only one of DEI's Chevrolet's that has guaranteed sponsorship in Bass Pro Shops. The No. 8 driven by Aric Almirola, the No. 01 driven by Regan Smith, and the now vacant No. 15 have no primary financial backing for 2009, at least that the public knows about.

Is this payback for Ms. Earnhardt, who absolutely refused to sell Dale Earnhardt Jr. the business last year before Earnhardt Jr. decided to take his talents over to Hendrick Motorsports? It seems so. Perhaps the smart thing for her to do would have been to take her mutli, multi millions and run with them and let the company's namesake take his rightful place as CEO. Regrets? Yeah, you can bet she's got more than a few now.

The people to feel sorry for now is the employees at DEI. With the lack of sponsorship available for next season, it's difficult to predict what's going to happen with those teams now. It's almost certain that Smith will be out of a job, and that the organization won't even run the No. 01 next year, which puts the members of that team out of work, too. The No. 15? That team may be a foregone conclusion, too.

Almirola's No. 8 team is searching for sponsorship, too, and that's sure to hamper that team's performance if they have to piecemeal a bunch of deals together. Can't see them making a run at the Chase next year by any stretch. The fact that Truex Jr. re-signed with DEI was one of great mystery to me, too. I figured he'd jump ship and at least try to land at Penske (before Stremme got the No. 12 deal) or perhaps RCR (before Mears got the No. 07). Now, Truex is stuck in no-man's land at DEI, too, without much of a prayer for success.

What does everyone think now? Is Ms. Earnhardt getting some come-uppance, perhaps? Only time will tell.
Posted: 10/7/2008 8:16:24 AM
Comments:
its too bad she couldn't work out a deal with Jr. I like Jr on the Hendrick team but believe he would have been better with the RCR and DEI team. I have the unfortunate task of trying to reach someone at DEI to ask if someone from DEI can come over to Vegas in February of 2010 to accept an award for Dale Sr, for being inducted into the Diecast Hall of Fame. More info at spinyourtiresdotcom.
Posted On: 8/11/2009 12:20:26 PM
All of you that are blogging about Teresa losing her rides are totally loco. That greedy witch will always have her broom.
Posted On: 3/17/2009 3:04:20 AM
What comes around goes around, every dog has it's day, don't bite the hand that feeds you, I could go on all day. She could have gave Jr. what he wanted and still had millions to spare. Sr. built DEI to be left for his KID's and he had other investments for his wife. I give her 2 years before she loses everything, A merger with Chip and the other loser isn't going to save the team. Jr's gone Martin is gone truex is next, then team folds.
Posted On: 1/30/2009 12:19:33 PM
I forsee DEI falling to the wayside soon, if not, it will have to merge with another team maybe to survive. Theresa screwed up last yr. and without dale jrs popularity and sell-il-able name on this company DEI may have signed its death certificate! Dale senior would not have put up with
this, i dont think he an theresa talked about the what ifs. If theresa ends up selling me a slirpy at one of the vender stations, ill be sure to give her my 2 cents! Its a shame the greatest driver in this decade could build something so profitable and have it self destruct so quickly because of controlling greed! But never-the-less, Ill be a dale sr./ jr. fan 4-ever!! Go fast Turn left!! see you in DAYTONA!!!
Posted On: 1/27/2009 6:14:16 PM
DEI, Petty Enterprises, Ray Evernham - all of them, the price of the sport is not returning the benefits to the sponsor and "it's the economy stupid" (where have we heard that before?).

Jack Roush, Rick Hendrick - they are all feeling the pinch, but with all of their diverse interests, not as loudly. With car sales in the dumper, do you think that Hendrick can hang on forever? With Ford and all the other manufacturers getting hammered in lagging sales and a Congress that wants to hang somebody for what they screwed up (other than themselves), how long will it be before these guys are back to a 2 car teams, or - 1 car team.

Nope, Teresa is getting what everybody is getting - the only difference is, we like it better when a millionaire gets clobbered more than we do.
Posted On: 1/6/2009 5:20:10 PM
As njohns24 said, she got what she asked for! The best thing she could have done was give DaleJr controlling intrest of DEI and she would have made enough money off of her part of the company, but she had to be GREEDY! If I was Truex Jr, I would be looking to see how long Mark Martin will be in the 5 car, if Mark is only going to be there a year then Truex needs to see if he can do a deal with Hendrick for 2010. Then the buddies can be teamates again.
Posted On: 10/10/2008 3:13:33 PM
Max Seigel singlehandidly has run that company into the ground.But because of the color of his skin and the Diversity issue no one dare say a word.Budweiser,Us Army and Menards all know he's lost and want nothing to do with him.
Posted On: 10/9/2008 8:25:50 PM
I think she is getting what she asked for. She should have worked out A deal with Dale jr. And than everybody could be happy and race
Posted On: 10/9/2008 4:34:57 AM

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