Dale Jr to Hendrick Motorsports in 2008

Now, I saw what I needed to see, in order to believe it.

(Mind you, it was at my day job, on the sly...ya know, the web cast on nascar.com)

You could look at this many ways, like people are throughout the NASCAR community, online and off.

I know of fans that are disgusted with Junior and his decision. Also, on the contrary, I have heard from fans that are supportive, no matter what he does.

If you look at it from both sides, you could understand why people feel, the way they do. You can only wonder what kind of impact this is going to make on the NASCAR world or community at large.

In my opinion, DEI is going to deflate, largely because Junior as a marketing and talent...is no longer there, bringing in the money. (Not that Martin Truex isn't a talent and a commodity, but Junior was a huge part of that company and really its namesake, literally and figuratively.)

Hendrick can only profit on this. I think he'll win, no matter if Junior loses races, or wins them. Or for that matter, championships, period.

Some people think he'll win, because he has better equipment. Possibly. I think that could happen with any driver that moves to any top team that wins. It's not always the equipment, it's also driver talent as well.

Look at the stock exchange. See what happens to NASCAR, as it's now a publicly traded commodity. Look at what happens to merchandise sales at DEI. Or for that matter, nascar.com in general. Notice how quickly they jumped on that? (See the ads for "get it while it lasts")

2008 is 6 months away. We'll see what happens then.