Car owner Rick Hendrick seemingly has it all, including Dale Earnhardt Jr. for 2008 – but he doesn’t need a Bud.
Friendship and sponsorship are two things Hendrick doesn’t lack. He has so much of both that last week he informed Anheuser-Busch Inc. that he didn’t need the company’s money to splash Budweiser logos all over Earnhardt’s car next season.
Hendrick also declined to take part in the massive Earnhardt- Budweiser merchandise sales that Dale Earnhardt Inc. currently collects.
For Hendrick – the guy who signs the checks for drivers Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Kyle Busch and Casey Mears – it’s really not about the money.
“Honoring our commitments is important to us,” Hendrick said in a release about his decision to not accept Budweiser’s money. “The trade-off is missing an opportunity to bring Budweiser, a marquee brand synonymous with NASCAR and its fans, into the fold.”
NASCAR doesn’t have a driver’s association, and the sanctioning body, car owners and drivers try to keep salaries private. But it is widely known that when Hendrick signed Earnhardt for 2008 on June 13, it was the largest driving contract in the history of the sport.
Best guess says at least $25 million plus bonuses and incentives. Hendrick could certainly afford the deal given that Budweiser, which is nearly synonymous with Earnhardt on the racetrack, would come over with the sport’s biggest star.
But, apparently, Hendrick was comfortable with the contract without the beer. It became obvious last week when Hendrick met with his current sponsors – most notably the ones that back Kyle Busch’s car, which Earnhardt will drive next year – and they refused to step aside.
Can’t blame them. They agree to support Kyle Busch, who is not one of the sport’s popular drivers, and then they luck into partnering with a megastar.
Earnhardt says he’ll continue making Budweiser his “beer of choice” – duh, because that’s his sponsor the rest of the year – but you can bet he’ll be eating a lot of Kellogg’s cereal at this time next year.
“I’m a race car driver (and) all I can do is drive as hard as I can for my fans and sponsorship partners and give my best effort each weekend,” Earnhardt said in a release.
Budweiser should retire from car sponsorship and just remain as NASCAR’s official beer – whatever that means. The Bud car can only go backward.
Its previous drivers were Terry Labonte, Darrell Waltrip, Bill Elliott, Ken Schrader, Ricky Craven and Wally Dallenbach.
Nobody can replace Junior.
Footnotes
After Nextel Cup takes a break this weekend, the series will reunite with ABC, which hasn’t covered a Cup race since 2000. ABC-owned ESPN will televise the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard and the 16 races left this year, including all 10 Chase events.
ESPN has covered the most races of any network. To commemorate its return, five documentary shows will run every night next week, beginning Monday. … Kenny Wallace, driver for Denver-based Furniture Row Racing, was doing a lot of talking but not much racing. The co-host for the Speed Channel’s prerace Cup events qualified for one of the past seven races. He qualified for eight of the first 12 and is 9-of-19 overall. … Ginn Racing replaced Sterling Marlin in its No. 14 Chevrolet with rookie Regan Smith, 23, on Tuesday and released veteran Joe Nemechek.
Staff writer Mike Chambers can be reached at 303-954-1357 or mchambers@denverpost.com.
