Saw this headline on Yahoo Sports tonite: Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s stepmother derailing his car wouldn't be surprising, writes Jenna Fryer (AP writer).
I thought AP writers had to have higher standards and more ethics than that.
More fuel for the conspiracy theorists. And, hey, sometimes I am one of them, too...But, in this case, it's laughable because it's so utterly preposterous. If Dale Jr.'s hard luck and misfortunes are to be put at anyone's feet, it is his own; after all, he has kept basically the same shop team and crew together and he's had similar misfortune the past several seasons. He went into the last race to the Chase over 100 points behind 12th place. It wasn't as though he was in 11th or 12th and holding off the competition.
DEI and Budweiser and Chevrolet have too much at stake, and while many of the newer Junior fans might think it's fun to make charges such as this at Teresa Earnhardt, the facts remain that she is CEO of DEI and has a lot at stake financially. It would be petty and beneath her to order something like that done. And, do you really think that 'secret' could be kept in this sport? There are few secrets in the garage. The gossipiness of racing crew members is legendary. This alone would preclude a secret sabotage effort.
The likeliest culprits are the folks on Junior's crew that deal with the engines. That's where fingers need to be pointed. If I had five or six engine failures, I know I'd be reassessing who is working on the engines and what they are doing. Not trying to blame Mrs. Dale Earnhardt for trying to keep her step-son out of the Chase. After all, that sure would have helped sell all that leftover Budweiser and #8 souvenir swag that is still hanging around; most of it at half-price.
