FanHouse Maxsiegel

Over the course of the past 24 hours, word has come out that one of the newer faces to the NASCAR garage area will be changing gears in how he works with the sport.

Max Siegel, hired on as the company president at the then-Dale Earnhardt Inc. in Febuary of 2007, will now lead NASCAR's Drive for Diversity program in addition to returning to an Indianapolis law firm to specialize in sports and entertainment.

The move was predicated by DEI's merger with Chip Ganassi Racing in November that diminshed the need for Siegel's efforts at the newly-named Earnhardt-Ganassi Racing. Prior to the merger, Siegel was the highest-ranking African-American executive in the NASCAR garage.

Leading up to the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard, word was that Martin Truex Jr. was going to re-sign with Dale Earnhardt Inc. for 2009, and potentially longer. Truex, though, wasn't happy about the report done by ESPN.com's David Newton:

"It's (expletive). I don't know what the hell (the reporter) is talking about. He doesn't know what he's talking about," Truex said.

It turns out, though, that Newton was ultimately right. Whether or not he was right at the time, though, is still up in the air.

Regardless, Martin Truex Jr. is expected to announce later Friday that he will be staying at DEI in the No. 1 car for at least one more year. In contract terms, Truex actually just accepted the DEI's proposal to pick up the one-year option for '09 that was already in his previous deal.

Truex's move takes away at least a fraction of the rumor game being currently played throughout the Sprint Cup garage area, as he has been rumored for any number of open seats in 2009 including Stewart-Haas Racing, Penske Racing, and Richard Childress Racing.

It's been quite a month for Aric Almirola.

He went from having no Nextel Cup ride, to having a third-rate Cup ride to possibly taking over what is now the most popular Cup ride on the circuit.

According to Marty Smith, DEI might solve their "too many drivers not enough cars and lack of a new high-caliber driver to replace Dale Earnhardt Jr." with the most obvious solution: putting veteran Mark Martin behind the wheel of the #8.

DEI President Max Siegel:

"If there's anyone that would represent Dale Earnhardt Inc. and what the No. 8 means to this company it would be Mark Martin."

Martin doesn't want a full-time Cup ride, though, so he'd split the season with Almirola, but nothing is written in stone yet.

The car would be sponsored by The Army and presumably this means that Regan Smith could still have a job driving the #01 for 2008 with sponsor TBD. But, it sounds like DEI is keeping their "several options" open and is still looking at Greg Biffle for 2009.

Almirola will make his DEI debut Saturday night in the Sharpie 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway in the #01. I don't know what to make of his racing abilities yet since I haven't seen him race too much and he hasn't completed even one full season in any NASCAR series. But I do know he's gonna have to work his a** off to get the same kind of love showered on the #8 car as it gets now.

It's been just over six weeks since Dale Earnhardt Inc., a company built on marketing, lost its most marketable product.

Since then, the founder's namesake has signed a five-year contract with the sport's hottest competitor and has sponsors tripping over themselves to throw money at him, the team he's going to drive for and the team he owns. In short, there isn't anybody out there who doesn't want a piece of the Dale Earnhardt Jr. pie and they'll take any piece they can get.

The same cannot be said for DEI.

#8 Budweiser Chevrolet Team

In Play: The number, the driver and the sponsor. After their star player announced he wouldn't return next season, the question of their largest sponsor's loyalty came into question. Budweiser would be hard pressed to get the same return on investment with another driver in the #8. Few arguments could be made--I won't bother.

'80s headbangers like myself remember Riki Rachtman as the host of MTV's "Headbangers Ball." I know it's hard to imagine, kids, but would you believe that they actually used to play music videos on the Music Television channel?

More recently, Rachtman has made himself known to a brand new generation of NASCAR fans as a co-host on Speed's "Raceday" and the voice of the "Racing Rocks" podcast.

"Raceday" viewers may recall that Rachtman was instrumental in the Vote In Kenny All-Star Challenge campaign. Fans will also recall that the campaign was successful and Wallace was the driver voted in by fans to race.

That's why I am thrilled to help spread the word about the tattooed headbanger's latest campaign: Free the #8.

On behalf of all Dale Earnhardt Jr. fans, Rachtman publicly called on Teresa Earnhardt today on "Raceday" to release the #8 to Hendrick Motorsports.

Of course we all know that this will require some type of official deal with DEI and HMS. It's hard to say if the fans can make any difference. But has that ever stopped us before? And hey, if fans can bring a TV show back from the dead by going nuts, anything is possible.

DEI President Max Siegel agrees:

"Anything is possible. If someone makes a formal request, we'll sit down and talk about it. If there is any possible scenario that is mutually beneficial, I'd be happy to entertain it.

Isn't not giving the fans another reason to hate the evil step mother Teresa beneficial enough?

NASCAR fan and Answer this... reader Jennifer Newsome started a "Give Dale Jr. the #8" petition and it looks like Rachtman's "Free the #8" is already having an impact. When I looked prior to this posting, there were a total of 1,480 signatures and since then it's just over 1,500 and a few recent additions reference Free the #8.

The tallglassofmilk officially signed on at #1503 and recognizes a few readers' names on the list. What about the rest of you? You gonna sign your name? (see update below)

Update: New Links
New petition at www.petitionspot.com/petitions/DaleJr8 (the original was vandalized)
Free the #8 gear at www.cafepress.com/free8 and www.cafepress.com/freethe8

Ok... deadbeat owner, as dubbed by Kevin Harvick, might be a little harsh, but I couldn't bring myself to call Teresa Earnhardt the wicked step-witch. She's probably already having a bad day.

DEI's failed negotiations with Dale Earnhardt Jr. could eventually go down in the history books as one of the worst business--and personal--decisions in the history of NASCAR. After all, this isn't TEI we're talking about ... or at least it wasn't until now.

Will the company Dale Earnhardt left behind go on without his son behind the wheel? As DEI's own Max Siegel put it today, only time will tell.

But it doesn't take much time to realize what's been lost:

Personality
Most noticeable in the short run will be the loss of personality--that of the larger-than-life Dale Earnhardt Jr., NASCAR's fan favorite four years running. The very public personality that Teresa Earnhardt called attention to in the Wall Street Journal article late last year in what may have been the beginning of the end of the working relationship between DEI and Earnhardt Jr. the driver.

Sponsors
Money puts cars on the track. Siegel put his cards on the table today:

"We have to figure out a way not to become solely reliant on our sponsorship revenue to survive as a team."

Is that even possible? DEI is going to take a huge hit to their bottom line when they lose the influx of Budweiser money, which I think everyone knows is a reality.

Hard to tell at this early stage how much more money will follow Junior out the door.

Talent

Martin Truex Jr. - He stays put--for now--and has another year on his contract ... with ways to get out if he wants. Do his loyalties lie with mentor Dale Earnhardt Jr., who brought him in, or with the company that's been paying his salary the past few years? Find out more tonight--Truex will be a guest on a special hour-long edition of "NASCAR Now."

Paul Menard - I assume DEI is stuck with him as long as John Menard is willing to keep dumping his money into his son's dream and his girlfriend's (?) team.

By now, just 6 hours after Junior's press conference, I'm sure teams are lining up to negotiate. How many drivers of Junior's caliber do you think are beating down the door at DEI to replace him?

Previously on Fanhouse
NASCAR's Most Popular Driver Is a Free Agent
LIVE BLOG: Dale Earnhardt Jr. Press Conference
It's the End of the World as We Know It

The daughter of the late legend Dale Earnhardt wears many a hat.

She's a wife, to crew chief Jimmy Elledge, and a mother, to Karsyn and Kennedy.

She's a patient, still recovering from a surgical operation removing a growth from her pancreas last month.

She is her brother's business partner, advisor and confidant.

Kelley Earnhardt Elledge is also playing one of the biggest roles of her life right now as chief negotiator for NASCAR's most popular driver in this season's face-off between Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Dale Earnhardt Inc.

She has quietly become one of NASCAR's most powerful women and she's going head-to-head with another--also an Earnhardt--who just happens to be her stepmother.

Well, almost head-to-head. Teresa Earnhardt has a go-between to do the negotiating on behalf DEI. I imagine that having Max Siegel around is good for family relations.

The Kids Have Spoken

What's at stake is their father's legacy. This time, Kelley isn't negotiating just on behalf of Junior, but also herself. She didn't spare her thoughts Tuesday when she reiterated that they want control of what their late father's company because they're not satisfied with the way it's going: