NASCAR – Do The Right Thing!

NASCAR please end all the suspense – what number will Junior race under next year?

Dale Earnhardt, Jr. is the face of NASCAR. He has been voted NASCAR’s most popular driver four years in a row and his car number 8 apparel and merchandising accounts for 30 percent of all NASCAR merchandise sold. With his leaving DEI Motorsports to join Hendrick Motorsports (HMS) in 2008, many fans are left wondering if Junior will race car number 8 with HMS or will he be issued a new number? There was been much written about DEI being open to discussions with HMS about the rights to the number 8. In fact, it has been reported that HMS has even asked DEI about buying the number 8. But the decision does not rest solely with DEI.

There is a little known yet long-standing numbers policy in NASCAR that NASCAR assigns and owns all the sports car numbers. DEI was assigned the number 8 in 2000 with the arrival of Junior racing in the Cup Series full-time. DEI has the right to keep using the number or relinquish the number back to NASCAR. Now, NASCAR could just end the speculation by working out a deal with DEI and HMS to keep the face of their sport in the sports car number that he requested. The car number 8 is significant to Junior since it is the car number that his grandfather, Ralph Lee Earnhardt, raced under in the early years of NASCAR. As an Earnhardt fan, I cannot imagine any other driver than an Earnhardt driving the number 8 and for that matter the number 3. NASCAR – you have been one sport sanctioning body that not only acknowledges but realizes the sport is about the fans. Do the right thing – let Junior keep the number 8.