[Racer Duck]

Originally Posted by thunderfoot

My question is, How can NASCAR claim to own the numbers? Thats like BF coming up with a new plan to rent air to the fans to breathe at the track. "Well the oxygen would be mixed with the molecules of spent race fuel so we own it."

because it's their playground and if you want to play on it, you have to play by their rules .. their rules say you put whatever number they tell you on your car .. it's called "registration".

they do give past "owners" of a number first refusal rights, so if you wanted, for example #24, you'd have to wait for the current (past) owner to say they didn't want it and would not be registering it next year.

works the same as in other series: ya wanna run a number ya try to register it .. if ya get a NO, then ya take evasive action and salvage what you can.

[thunderfoot]

You are correct there RD. I was just trying to make a point of how we get strangled by the man. Or shall I say "family". We used to be able to pick our number if it wasnt in use, and generally got the word that we could run it. But someone had stated before that NASCAR owns the numbers. I have a problem with that word. It shows a dictatorship. Yup, that be the family.

[PettyBlue]

Originally Posted by thunderfoot

You are correct there RD. I was just trying to make a point of how we get strangled by the man. Or shall I say "family". We used to be able to pick our number if it wasnt in use, and generally got the word that we could run it. But someone had stated before that NASCAR owns the numbers. I have a problem with that word. It shows a dictatorship. Yup, that be the family.

I agree for the most part.That is why when I raced I would go with #11 and if taken well one peice of tape I was #17.If taken one more peice and I was #77.It don't matter to a racer what #.

[wingkey1]

Originally Posted by thunderfoot

My question is, How can NASCAR claim to own the numbers? Thats like BF coming up with a new plan to rent air to the fans to breathe at the track. "Well the oxygen would be mixed with the molecules of spent race fuel so we own it."

In pretty much every sanctioned series and/or formal levels of racing, it is accepted that the sanctioning body will be responsible for the management of the assigned and available numbers for teams choosing to compete within the series. If this were not the practice, we'd be watching multiple cars with the same number circling the track. Even at the level of/when we raced Quartermidgets, numbers at the club level were managed. If left solely to the teams/owners/drivers we'd have had every car black with the #3 on it.

Now for the unknowing fans in the stands it would have been - "Oh isn't that cute! Look at all the 3 cars. Don't ya just love kids". All ya would have had to do is drag their sorry butts in to the scoring tower, hand'em a score card, and just watch.

Promise ya, if not managed, personal preference would result in a mess.

[oncea3fan]

last night I lost alot of respect for booty barker, he stated that it was a spitful thing to keep the 8.

lets back up a few years to the early eighties, dale was one hell of a driver that won the ROY and then the 1980 CUP, from what I understand he got screwed on the money side of that.
he married Trearsa houston (houston racing family)in 82 .
dale showed he could drive, but didn't have the finanacail side down, step in Trears with her college education and they fromed DEI, dales busch team. dale and trearsa supported this team working the build cars and secure sponsorship for like 15 years before jr. stepped in to thier busch car.
lat also look at some other "TOP" drivers that left thier teams. DW left his HMS team to go it on his own, he failed and closed his tean after a few years.yeah DW could still drive, but he didn't have the people(like treasa) to keep the finanaces flowing. Bill elloit went the same path, ricky rudd, and Iam sure thier are many others it takes more then a driver the to biuld a team. steve park was the first DEI cup driver, maybe he should have gotten part owner ship, he won 2 races including the first race after dales death. where was he support when he left.

bottom line is DEI was biult by dale AND TREASA, jr. was a hired driver. he could have went to bam racing or some other low buck back markers. but DEI put him in good equipment from the start, DEI built jr. not the other way around.

[Racer Duck]

Originally Posted by oncea3fan

last night I lost alot of respect for booty barker, he stated that it was a spitful thing to keep the 8.

...

bottom line is DEI was biult by dale AND TREASA, jr. was a hired driver. he could have went to bam racing or some other low buck back markers. but DEI put him in good equipment from the start, DEI built jr. not the other way around.

and in return DEI reaped millions and millions of $$$ off his popularity. DEI may have "built" the driver, but they didn't build his popularity! Jr. owes DEI nothing, DEI got more than it gave. here's a question: If Teresa is such a business genius, why did she hire Max Siegel, another business genius who had zero experience in racing and was not even a fan?

a number is a number is a number .. nothing more. nobody denies there are bad feelings between Dale Jr. and Teresa, bad feelings that go back to Teresa's early days as an Earnhardt. and bad feelings will poke their ugly head into negotiations. in this one, both sides have legitimate claims to the number and Jr has publicly admitted he pretty much knew when he left DEI he would be leaving #8 behind.

DEI (Dale Sr. actually, 'cause he was in charge of the racing business, not Teresa) put Jr. in good equipment and suffered thru his learning stages, just like he did with Kelly and Kerry. Kelly and Jr. decided to focus their energies on their own business (JR Motorsports, created in '99 to manage Jr.'s career) and Kerry has stayed with DEI 'cause it's the only place he can get a ride ('cause he's not a very good driver.) After Sr.'s death, JR Motorsports fielded their first racing team, a street stock raced at Concord in '02.

Thru JR Motorsports, Dale Jr.'s business interests grew as well as his popularity. DEI did not get Jr. Most Popular Driver 5 of the last 6 years (soon to be 6 of the last 7!) And that meant big, big $$$ in souvenir money 'cause DEI owned Jr.'s name. Only Sr.'s souvenir money approached Jr.s and with Bud as major sponsor of Jr in the 8 car, (Bud could car less who Jr. drove for, they wanted Jr.) he was a gold mine.

And when Jr. wanted control of his own name last year, Teresa tried blocking that 'cause it meant she'd be loosing major $$$. I think this is when Jr. finally began to understand the marketing power he had (tho I believe Kelly knew it all along.) it's my opinion that Max is the one who actually convinced Teresa of the "rightness" of this deal.

The family squabble became public. Jr. (and Kelly) tried to wrest control of DEI away from Teresa, but failed. Jr. decided to not renew his contract with DEI and take his famous name and new found marketing power elsewhere.

So both sides have been guilty of trying to gain an advantage to the detriment of the other. And both have been selfish, maybe even spiteful, in their negotiations.

And there'll probably be one or two more "smear" stories before this year is over. The hate these two feel towards each other has not gone away, and probably never will.

[Lefturn]

From what I have read NASCAR owns all the numbers and leases them to the teams to use. It is another of NASCAR's way to totally control everything and everything related to their sport.

I don't care about the numbers. I pull for the drivers regardless of the number or color of the car. It will be a strange site not seeing Jr in the Red #8, but it will also take time to get used to Shrub in the green #18. It's the same at the beginning of every year.

I think that Teresa could have done better, but to be fair perhaps Dale Jr could have done better also. Negotiations are two way deals.

[tkj24]

Numbers and colors don't mean nuttin to me either. I would pull for Jeff Gordon if he drove a jalopy.

[lilsexy08]

Well, Dale Jr. knew it was coming. I read that this am on nascar.com. Teresa is just doing it to spite him. If Dale Sr. was around Jr. would still be at DEI and he would have the #8 and get some control over at DEI. Teresa just hang it up your a spiteful bit*^.

[PettyBlue]

Originally Posted by lilsexy08

Well, Dale Jr. knew it was coming. I read that this am on nascar.com. Teresa is just doing it to spite him. If Dale Sr. was around Jr. would still be at DEI and he would have the #8 and get some control over at DEI. Teresa just hang it up your a spiteful bit*^.

Easy there lady,you sound as if you are throwing a Tony tantrum.lol.

[lilsexy08]

Originally Posted by PettyBlue

Easy there lady,you sound as if you are throwing a Tony tantrum.lol.

Thank you Petty! I take that as a compliment! LOL!

[PettyBlue]

No problem,just don't blow a head gasket,O.K. We don't want you leaking all over the forum.

[tkj24]

Originally Posted by lilsexy08

Well, Dale Jr. knew it was coming. I read that this am on nascar.com. Teresa is just doing it to spite him. If Dale Sr. was around Jr. would still be at DEI and he would have the #8 and get some control over at DEI. Teresa just hang it up your a spiteful bit*^.

If Sr were still here Jr wouldn't need any control because he knew what he was doing when it come to a race car and what they needed to make them run good.

[tkj24]

Originally Posted by lilsexy08

Well, Dale Jr. knew it was coming. I read that this am on nascar.com. Teresa is just doing it to spite him. If Dale Sr. was around Jr. would still be at DEI and he would have the #8 and get some control over at DEI. Teresa just hang it up your a spiteful bit*^.

If Sr were here Jr wouldn't need any control. Dale knew what he was doing when it come to a race car and what he needed to make it run. I wasn't a Sr fan by no means. He was probably the last of the drivers who could really work on a car.

[jks812]

Originally Posted by lilsexy08

Well, Dale Jr. knew it was coming. I read that this am on nascar.com. Teresa is just doing it to spite him. If Dale Sr. was around Jr. would still be at DEI and he would have the #8 and get some control over at DEI. Teresa just hang it up your a spiteful bit*^.

If Sr were still here Jr might still not have any control at DEI. After all he had none before Sr died and Sr left him none in his will. I'm also not willing to put all the blame for this mess on Teresa, Jr and Kelly played their parts in it too. They tried to pull a power play on the owner and it didn't work( it seldomly does). As for her being spiteful, I think thats a 2 way street. Jr said he knew before he asked that he wasn't going to get the number. So maybe he and Kelly were being spiteful when they asked for it.