Hendrick's signing of Junior leaves Cup teams scrambling
Nextel Cup team owners are still scratching their heads over this Dale Earnhardt Jr.-to-Hendrick Motorsports thing. Their attention now turns to the next big name on the free-agent list: Kyle Busch.
BROOKLYN, Mich. -- Richard Childress didn't seem stressed or panicky after losing the Dale Earnhardt Jr. sweepstakes as he stood behind Jeff Burton's hauler on a laid-back Saturday morning at Michigan International Speedway.
He was upbeat and refreshed, having just returned from a successful hunting trip in New Zealand.
His focus wasn't on finishing behind Chevrolet rival Hendrick Motorsports for the rights to NASCAR's most popular driver.
He was looking ahead to opening negotiations with Kyle Busch, the driver Earnhardt will replace at HMS, and starting a fourth team that was in the works before this free-agent frenzy began.
"Like Dale and I used to go on our hunting trips and get fired up and ready to go," Childress said of Earnhardt's dad, who won six of his seven titles at RCR. "Right now I'm fired up and ready to go."
Yes, the garage is still abuzz about Earnhardt's decision to join NASCAR's most dominant organization.
There are some concerns that the balance of power that already was lopsided with HMS, which has won 10 of 14 Nextel Cup races heading into Sunday's event at Michigan, has become even more out of whack.
Most of that concern surrounds money, which in NASCAR means power.
With three of the top four drivers in merchandise sales in Earnhardt (1), Jeff Gordon (2) and Jimmie Johnson (4), an already rich team owner Rick Hendrick will have the type of spending power that George Steinbrenner has with the New York Yankees.
"It definitely gives them a leg up," said Ray Evernham, the owner of Evernham Motorsports.
Or as Ford owner Jack Roush said, "He has got a lot of energy there."
But like Childress, Roush isn't ready to play for second.
"I won't say that I consider him to have an insurmountable edge, but he's certainly got a lot of strength there," Roush said of Hendrick. "Junior, he's a very popular driver, the most popular driver today. That amount of energy brought to Hendrick is certainly considerable.
"God bless them and good luck and we'll consider them the same strong competitors as they always have been as far as signing sponsors and being on the track."
If anything, Earnhardt going to HMS is making other teams work harder. Evernham is ready to put on a full-court press in the Busch sweepstakes and expanding his organization to four teams.
"There's an envelope and ceiling," he said. "Some people will get there faster, but other people will catch up."
Since few if any teams will be able to outspend Hendrick, being more efficient with money and resources becomes more important.
"We have to have a great game plan about how we're going to spend money and more money doesn't fix any of that," RCR driver Jeff Burton said. "If run properly, [it] can give you an advantage or help you catch up in some areas, but it has to be run properly.
"It has to be the right program. It has to have a plan behind it. If not, then you have chaos."
Few believe the monopoly of stars Hendrick has collected will cause chaos.
"They're superstars on the outside, but all real good quality people on the inside," said Casey Mears, the fourth driver in the HMS mix. "When you get back to the truck they're all just good people."
The consensus is Earnhardt will bring even more chemistry to an organization that already has the best chemistry.
"Energy, energy, energy," said Robert Yates, the co-owner of Robert Yates Racing. "It was already such a tough organization. Maybe we can run fifth now.
"Heck, who wouldn't want to work there? They've got all the resources. They can hire the whole deal."
Yates would like to have seen NASCAR put a cap on the maximum number of teams an organization can have at two teams instead of four as they did a year ago.
"That monopoly is not good," he said. "But I don't know how to fix it now. The cow is out of the barn. The sport is good, so we're just in a big corporate world and the people that have the passion to race will be with big organizations.
Energy, energy, energy. It was already such a tough organization. Maybe we can run fifth now. Heck, who wouldn't want to work [for Hendrick]? They've got all the resources. They can hire the whole deal.
Robert Yates
"I need to accept this. NASCAR is a big organization and you need four teams and there's room for about 10 organizations. It's sort of like Vegas. There's no individual people owning it anymore. It's big companies."
And no company is bigger or better now than Hendrick Motorsports.
"Everybody always raves about how great of a place it is to work," said Martin Truex Jr., Earnhardt's teammate at Dale Earnhardt Inc. "Obviously, Rick Hendrick takes care of his people and that is why everyone wants to go there.
"A lot of people have got a lot of great drivers; they have just got the whole package right now. Things change."
Nobody knows that better than Childress, who went from one of the top teams to one of the also-rans for several years after Dale Earnhardt died on the last lap of the 2001 Daytona 500.
He was hoping that Earnhardt's son would help take his resurgent team back closer to that championship level.
But he's not wallowing in the loss.
"Sure, we would have liked to have had him," Childress said. "Hendrick, they're on a roll right now. But I've been in this sport long enough to know you're not going to be on that roll forever."
David Newton covers NASCAR for ESPN.com. He can be reached at dnewtonespn@aol.com.
