There are Pros and Cons with each of the scenerios that Dale Jr faces with his decision Thursday. If he was to stay with DEI, the pros would include the fact that he stays with the "family" and familiar #8 team (not to mention that the 20 million JR fans would breath a sigh of relief by realizing they wouldn't have to go out and buy $2000 worth of NEW JR GEAR)...the cons with staying with DEI maily revolve around the fact that Jr would be staying with a team that has progressively gotten worse over the past 3 years, and his chances at a Nextel Cup Championship would be slim to none.
     The pros behind him choosing to go with JR Motorsports is the fact that he would get what he wanted (TOTAL CONTROL), not to meantion that he would receive ALOT of merchandise revenue the first year after EVERY JR FAN refinances the house to load up on JR MOTORSPORTS GEAR!!! The Cons would be that he would be going with a totally NEW TEAM (reference Michael Waltrip Racing), and he would probably be buying engines from Hendrick Motorsports (actually a Pro!!) which would in turn alienate EVERY JR FAN / HENDRICK HATER...since they would now have to actually pull for Hendrick power!
     The pros of Jr choosing RCR would be the obvious.....a return by the Earnhardt name to the one team that actually made the name famous, not to mention the possibility of Jr running the #3 (instant millions!!!) and the fact that RCR is actually a top notch Nextel Cup Organization...so his chances of winning a championship would increas greatly. the Cons of choosing Childress Racing for JR is the fact that he would ALWAYS be compared tit-for-tat with his Father...a battle he will NEVER win in this era. The pressure on JR at RCR would be tremendous!!!
     And lastly, and least likely to happen; The pros for him choosing Hendrick Motorsports would be the most obvious...mainly, stepping into the BEST team in all of NASCAR, with a chance of winning the championship EVERY YEAR for the next 10 years! Of course the Cons are equally as obvious; JR would probably actually LOSE some fans over the appearance that he "betrayed" everything the Earnhardt name stands for.....see, Earnhardt is the ANTI-HENDRICK.....so Jr driving for Rick Hendrick would ultimately be a bad thing for Jr, as well as NASCAR.

Just thoughts to ponder!!!

This new age of NASCAR where sponsers and money have seemingly taken over is starting to really take away from MY FAVORITE sport. I have been an avid fan for 21 years...and I am only 30. I have been to every Bristol Nextel Cup race since 1986, so I have seen alot of change in my time.

     But this new age of sponsers disallowing similar sponsers to advertise is getting really old. When WINSTON was the title sponser of the series they did NOT complain about Camel, Skoal, or Levi Garrett being sponsers of other teams in the series. Likewise for Unocal 76 racing fuels, as they NEVER complained to NASCAR about SUNOCO (ironic), Phillips 66, or Exxon (to name a few) sponsering teams. And I think we all agree, racing sure was great in the 70's, 80's and 90's!!!

     But welcome to the NEW "Brian France" NASCAR.

     When Nextel took over as title sponser from Winston, they IMEDIATELY put their foot down and said "No other cell phone provider company can sponser any team other than the 2 already there".  I have thought from day 1 that this type of business practice is CRAP!

Message to NEXTEL: You paid money to be the TITLE sponsor for an entire sport...but that should not give you the right to make up your own SELFISH rules. Due to your business practice, I WILL NEVER BUY A NEXTEL PHONE. You seem to think you are doing something good, when in fact you are SCREWING several teams that could benefit from sponsorship money, THUS TAKING AWAY FROM THE QUALITY OF RACING!!!

     With that said, Nextel set the bar...and now every title or "official" sponser thinks they have the right to do the same thing. Sunoco is sueing Shell because their decal on Kevin Harvicks driver suit is "too large"? How stupid is that?

     Back to Nextel, they are also disallowing Motorola to sponser Robby Gordon because Motorola supplies cell phones to Nexel AND VERIZON WIRELESS. That disapproval took alot of money away from Robby Gordon's team, and less money means the team is less competitive, and THAT starts to take away from the FANS. Also, Nextel is saying that AT&T/ Cingular can no longer sponser Jeff Burton starting in 2008, meaning we may have at least 2 teams in the Cup series without a major sponser because of Nextel's attempt at a Monopoly.

   In closing, YOU SPONSERS WHO "THINK" YOU ARE DOING A GOOD THING BY SPONSORING THE SERIES AND DISALLOWING ANY OTHER SIMILAR SPONSOR IN ARE IN FACT DOING NASCAR, RACING IN GENERAL, AND FORMOST THE FANS....A GREAT DISSERVICE!!!

I FOR ONE WILL NEVER BUY A NEXTEL PHONE OR SUNOCO GASOLINE...AND I AM AS BIG A NASCAR FAN AS THERE IS!!!