One last thing before I go...................
Scratch everything/news I posted this morning, this is from a note from JRM.
(5/11/07)
With the smoke still clearing from the biggest announcement we’ve ever had, let me now address an issue that needs to be clear and precise. If you haven’t noticed already, there is a serious media fetish to report Junior’s next move before anyone else, and in the process, it has become a collective and classic example of lazy, gossipy, tabloid-esque reporting that I’ve ever seen. My problem isn’t with the “little men” who start crazy rumors in a self-absorbed attempt to feel important. My problem is with the college-educated news guys who get paid to write, broadcast, and report the news. But in an attempt to beat others to the punch, they run on rumors, put it out there for you, the fans, to digest, and hope they were accurate.
So far, most have not been. Take for instance Dave Moody on Sirius Satellite Radio... or Jerry Bonkowsi on Yahoo! Sports... or the folks at NASCAR.com... or many, many others, who reported the reason for our Thursday press conference would be to announce that Dale Jr. and Martin Truex Jr. were leaving DEI to start a two-team Cup program here at JR Motorsports. If that wasn’t bad enough, people like Terry Blount on ESPN’s “NASCAR Now” proceeded to ridicule Junior for even thinking of doing such a thing.
It made for humorous conversations between myself, Dale Jr., and Martin Jr., but in the grand scheme of things, it’s pitiful when these journalists refuse accountability by saying, “I was only going on what my sources told me.”
Time to check your sources, guys. It’s bad journalism, bad reporting, and bad ethics. The same applies for the Hickory, N.C. television station who is reporting today that we are announcing a deal with Richard Childress Racing to drive a No. 33 Budweiser car.
Huh?.
You can take this to the bank: We’re not even close to announcing where he’s going, because we don’t know. There are many meetings with many teams forthcoming. Dale Jr. wants to contend. He wants resources. He wants equipment. He wants to give his fans wins and championships. A decision like that doesn’t come overnight, no matter what you read on Yahoo! Sports.
If Jr can convince another established driver to bolt from his team, he will move JR Motorsports up to Cup and become a Hendrick satellite. Even with the best equipment money can buy, a 1-car team doesn't have a chance of contending; indeed, only two 1-car teams are in the top 35 right now.
If he can't create a 2-car team, he'll move to RCR. They've got the second-best equipment in Cup, Childress still has first refusal on the #3, and most-importantly (and the reason why he can't join Hendrick directly), they've got room.
I really would like to see him and Kenseth be JR Motorsports, but Robot, DeWalt, and Reiser are all locked up at Roush Fenway through at least 2009. Besides, I don't think Brainless would like the idea of Kenseth and the Bees getting their hands on the best equipment all that much.
Jayski’s trying to track down confirmation on Richard Childress denying he signed Jr at his presser this morning.