We all know the commercial by now, the one where the woman runs out into the street screaming hysterically, "HE CHANGED HIS NUMBER!" It's another case of life imitating art. Or is it art imitating life? I forget.
Either way, we now know for sure that Dale Earnhardt Jr. will not be linked to the No. 8 for his entire Nextel Cup Series career. Hendrick Motorsports made that announcement on Thursday.
So, not only will Junior not be a Bud man any longer, but he'll also not have the No. 8. And I, for one, cannot see what the fuss is all about.
The days of Junior's father and his No. 3 are long gone. Mark Martin was supposed to be No. 6 forever, but now he's the No. 01 -- in a Chevrolet! -- when he so chooses to race. Darrell Waltrip identifies himself with the No. 17, though he was dominant in a No. 11 car for a few years there.
Junior's only real identification comes with his name. He was as popular for driving the Budweiser colors, certainly, but the numeral 8 itself is nothing special.
The way drivers swap teams, sponsors and numbers these days, it's hard to make any distinction anymore -- and it's a mistake to identify a driver by his number. In fact, teams pay people piles of cash to get you to think about branding.
Tony Stewart doesn't drive the No. 20. Hogwash. Stewart drives the Home Depot Chevrolet, and the same is true for Jeff Gordon and DuPont, Jimmie Johnson and Lowe's, Kurt Busch and Miller Lite.
Given that Nextel made us all forget about Winston in the same way Sprint will do the same to Nextel, it's hard to imagine we're all going to get all wishy-washy over Junior not being in the No. 8. In fact, I don't envision myself having to hit the 'delete' key over and over when typing in Junior's new car number.
5 comments:
if jr stepmom wont to let him have 8 why dont they go to childress and ask for #3 bet that would tee her off big time bet richard would give it to jr and put it in contrack it is jr #3 bet tereaser would be pi77 off
Junior has long been on the record saying that he has no interest in driving the No. 3.
He doesn't feel it would be the right thing to do, that he somehow hasn't "earned" it yet in the form of a championship.
TB
Junior certainly has not yet (if ever) earned the right to drive Richard Childress' 3 car. In addition, Childress is not about to give control of a number that meant so much to him and his best friend to Rick Hendrick. Everyone forgets the #3 was Richard's long before Dale started driving for him and Richard has a grandson coming up that seems to have great promise.
obviously you haven't had a driver to whom you had any loyalty--it hurts--now we will have to start another idenity--
I think what most people are really upset about is having to buy all new race gear.
BTW, since Richard Petty drove the 43 for 99% of his NASCAR career that number will always be associated with him. Likewise if Jeff Gordon never drives a car with a number other than 24 before he retires then he will always be linked to that number.
Otherwise, if a driver has had multiple numbers at various points in their career you are right, the number is insignificant
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