For those of you who know me, you know I hate keeping things under wraps, and I’m usually pretty honest, but it was something that was absolutely necessary as the negotiations progressed. I told you all season long that when we have something to announce, we’d announce it. So we’re calling this press conference here today to announce that after a year of intense negotiations and intense effort on behalf of Dale Earnhardt, Inc. and JR Motorsports, that we’ve decided it is time for us to move on and seek other opportunities to drive for a new team in 2008.
We’ve both worked extremely hard to find a common ground, but as the negotiations continued, one thing became evident, we both want to get to the same place, but we both simply have different visions on how to get there.
Because DEI means so much to me, I felt it was best now for both of us to start focusing on our future so that we both could come out of this successfully. Trust me when I say that DEI will come out of this successfully. Teresa and Max Seigel are taking the necessary steps to bring DEI back to one of the front-running NASCAR teams.
However, at 32 years of age, the same age as my father was when he made his final and most important career decision, it is time for me to compete on a consistent basis and contend for championships now. What team I drive for next season, I don’t know. We’ll see what opportunities I have, we’ll see who wants to hire me, who is interested for me to drive their race cars, and we’ll decide from there. That is an announcement, obviously, for a later date.
Today I want to say with complete sincerity that it’s been a privilege to drive for DEI, and it will continue to be a privilege throughout this season. It’s really all I’ve ever known. We’ve grown together, we’ve won together and we’ve lost together. It is important for me that my father’s legacy continues.
I would like nothing more than for DEI to continue building its future around good people, hard work and relentless determination. The same characteristics that were so evident in the man who built the place. We will continue to work together on many projects that will benefit both DEI and JR Motorsports, and the legacy of my father.
All the while, it is time for me to continue his legacy and the way I only know I can—by taking the life lessons that he taught me, be a man, race hard, and contend for championships. Since that is what I plan to do, I feel strongly that I would have my father’s blessing.
If I may speak openly to my fans, my dad’s fans and fans of DEI and all of the people who watch NASCAR racing each weekend, please understand that my decision is one I make for my career. I make it with the utmost respect to your loyalty and support. My motivation to climb in the race car each week is to satisfy my fans and give them what I feel they deserve.
I want to also thank some of my family members for being here today to support me. Obviously, my sister, my mother, Brenda, and my grandmother, Martha Earnhardt and my Aunt Cathy. All of my family has been really supportive throughout this, and I want to thank them for that. So we’ll open it up to any questions you guys might have for me or my sister.
Q. Was there one specific thing that led to this decision? And about what time did the two of you decide that what was best for Dale Jr., was to move on?
Dale Earnhardt, Jr. : Well, we’ll keep the instances and circumstances throughout the contract and the negotiations private. I don’t think it’s really important to get into that. But I can honestly say that we weren’t really close with what we both had in mind.
Like I said, they have every intention of running well and doing well. We just have a difference of opinion on how we get there. But you know, we’ve been pretty honest with the media as far as what we were doing, what our decision was. We stayed positive throughout the negotiations to work toward our goal and this brought us here today.
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