| What a Week It's Been | | Date Created: May 15, 2007, 12:31 PM |
Phew... quite a week, don't ya think?
The announcement Thursday was not a total surprise in the sense it was very clear there were very deep emotional rifts between JR Motorsports and DEI/TEI that go back decades, but were especially acute in the past several months. The timing of the news conference was swift and immediate in order to prevent days of rampant speculation and rumors. It is very hard to keep any secret in the NASCAR community- it's like a traveling circus of gossip columnists.
Of course, now that the announcement has been made, the rumors and speculation have gone through the roof. We knew and expected that. What we didn't expect was so many stories claiming to have "confirmed" information which couldn't have been further from any speck of truth. It's been sad to see the laziest and most careless media action in a skewed attempt to be the first to "break" the story.
Most of the media have been relentless - but relatively fair and accurate. (You can sample them yourself at our Dale Jr. Media Links page.) But there is also a long list of those who have printed completely fabricated stories. The worst examples have been Yahoo Sports (excepting Dan Wetzel) and the nitwit at the Fox-TV affiliate in the NC Triad (I won't mention his name - it would only fuel his sense of self-importance) who "confirmed" it was a done deal that Richard Childress would be holding a news conference to reveal Junior in the RCR #33 car at Darlington. (By the way, he's still sticking with his story even after Richard and Junior and the rest of the known world have denied all of the elements of his 'reporting.')
No coincidence, the Fox affilate in Boston also reported nearly the same thing. (Hmmm - what happened to the network that calls itself "fair and balanced?" In this case, as with nearly all of their network news, they are neither fair NOR balanced...)
The false reports do nothing but embarrass people like Dale Jr., Richard Childress and many others who try to present the truth in a timely manner. These untruths also give fans false hopes and expectations. Our only advice is to read and listen to everything with a BIG grain of salt, No one knows where Junior is going and no one knows who's going with him - from the crew to the crew chief to the sponsor.
Junior is taking a well-deserved rest for a few days (we all need that!) to clear his mind (which, after Sunday's race, he described as being "scrambled eggs") before he begins seriously meeting with team owners and others.
As with last week's announcement, Dale Jr. will tell us when he's made a decision. Until then, we'll all have to deal with our own anxieties and uncertainties and try to remain patient. And that goes for the media as well.
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People, People, People: Look for a Dale Jr. feature in this week's edition of People Magazine. They've been good to us through the years, so it will be interesting to see the angle taken by the celeb-focused magazine... |
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