Super link! Thanks so much!
The writing was on the wall. It’s been on the wall for quite some time. After that tragic day in February of 2001, it was only a matter of time. Someone had to give. In the end, it didn’t need to come to this, and it shouldn’t have had to come to this, but it has come to this.
Give Teresa Earnhardt credit where credit is due. Her and Dale Earnhardt Sr. created Dale Earnhardt Inc. (DEI), and cultivated it, and if he were still here today, you wouldn’t be talking about the Hendrick juggernaut; it would be the DEI juggernaut. Teresa was good at the start-up of DEI when she had the racing advice of the best in the business. After Dale Sr. was gone, who did she turn to? One by one, the pieces put in place by her and Dale Sr. slowly came unraveled. Many times these went by quietly and un-noticed. Ty Norris, Don Hawk, and many others loyal to Dale Earnhardt for so long, were leaving. The alliance was dissolving. The fierce loyalty and respect to the memory of Dale Earnhardt will likely keep the real reasons for the unraveling buried forever.
One could only speculate, but maybe it was Teresa’s management style. The three year bleed resulted in the 2005 disaster, when Teresa decided to shake things up with the #15/#8 mega-swap debacles. This brought to the forefront Teresa’s management style. This style was a great asset when starting up the company with Dale Sr. However Teresa’s style would simply never work with Dale Jr. in a role that Dale Sr. once filled. Think about it for a minute. It would be awkward for them both for Dale Jr. to be acting in the role of his father. And let’s recall those comments made by Jr. about how he feels about her now that he did when he was 6-years old and she moved into his Daddy’s house.
Any of you who know or have 6 year olds need to contemplate those words for a minute.
So in her best passive aggressive style, Teresa did what all passive-aggressive executives do. She slowly created a situation that would force Jr. to leave. First, the stupid comments to the WSJ. She follows this up by hiring a second in command whose knowledge of racing operations is at best limited. This forced Jr. to want the 51% ownership. He knew that the only way to put to an end to this ruination of his Father’s dream was to get control of it. And now, five months of bad-faith negotiations later, here we are. The trouble is Teresa is just too stubborn, proud, and arrogant to see just what she has done.
And now here this very clearly…DEI was not about Teresa, it was Dale Sr.’s dream for Dale Jr. A-HA, the ultimate manifestation of Teresa’s jealousy!
http://www.stockcarreview.com/id215.html