Dale Jr to Retire

[BDKJMU]

I knew he wouldn't race as long as his daddy did (age 49), but I was hoping for another 2-3 seasons, until he was in his mid 40s, like Gordon & Stewart. I wouldn't have been surprised at an announcement before the season started so he's have a full season farewell tour like Gordon did in 2015 and Stewart did last year, or an end of the season announcement like Edwards did this past winter, but the I was shocked at the timing of the announcement. On a Tues in late April, almost 1/4 of the way through the season was weird..

Of the 8 Cup points races run so far, 6 are at tracks with a 2nd date, but we have seen Junior for the last time at Autoclub and Las Vegas..

[BDKJMU]

That's now 5 top drivers who will have retired in a 2 year span:
-Jeff Gordon. At age 43 announced before the 2015 season that it would be his last (turned 44 during the season)
-Tony Stewart: At age 44 announced before the 2016 season that it would be his last (turned 45 during the season) (He and Gordon born in 71' about 3 months apart)..
-Carl Edwards announced after last season that he was retiring at age 37.
-Greg Biffle turned 47 this past Dec, and although not officially retired, basically is.
-Junior is 42 now, will be 43 at the end of the season.
Not seeing drivers race into their late 40s-50s anymore like they used to....

The other full time Cup drivers over 40 are:
-Matt Kenseth: turned 45 last month.
-Jimmie Johnson: 41 (turns 42 in Sept).
-Kevin Harvick: 41 (tuns 42 in Dec).
-Jamie McMurray: 40 (41 in June).
-Ryan Newman & Kurt Busch are in their late 30s..

I imagine this season or 2018 will be Kenseth's last.

[CID1990]

He mustve hit a wall and feels he cant progress any further


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[BDKJMU]

First the Rainbow Warrior, now Junior. Is Jimmie Johnson next? NASCAR needs some new stars.

Yep.

".....Even before Tuesday’s announcement, former Charlotte Motor Speedway president H.A. Humpy Wheeler had been scanning the current crop of drivers, looking for the next generation’s star.

“I haven’t seen it yet,” Wheeler, regarded as the sport’s greatest promoter, said in a telephone interview Tuesday. “To find out about NASCAR, you have to go to the small towns of the South, to the mountains of Appalachia. I go to those places, and I hear what they have to say. They’re not as enthused as they were. They’re looking for another [Dale] Earnhardt Sr.,....

.....Earnhardt’s father was NASCAR’s most polarizing figure through the 1980s and ’90s. Worshiped as a workingman’s hero by half the fans and reviled as a bully by the rest, he was reason enough to buy a ticket. And when he died at 49, it was his son who bore fans’ grief.

“He had the world by the tail and was just an incredible talent with unlimited potential,” former racer Kyle Petty recalled of Dale Jr. in a telephone interview. “So many fans, so many people, projected their loss and their emotions, their hopes, their aspirations, their dreams and their shattered dreams all on him. And he had to shoulder all and carry all that. It made him who he is today.”

Earnhardt raced the Sunday after his father’s death. And he raced the rest of the 2001 season, sublimating his own grief so he could absorb that of legions of fans he’d never meet.

From that moment, the son became NASCAR’s biggest star. Not because he was his dad’s twin or some lesser, Dale-Lite version. Even as a teenager trying to make his way in racing, Earnhardt was his own man, with his own taste in music and bleached streaks in his auburn mop of hair. But if he was a stock-car racing hipster, he was an old soul, too — well-schooled in great racers of old, with respect for NASCAR’s storied racetracks, a deep love of the grease and high-octane gas that made 800-horsepower engines go and an unabashed affection for the sport’s fans.

He didn’t see himself as better than ticket-buyers. Although he was given a famous name, there was little fortunate about his early upbringing. He was packed off to military school by an absentee father trying to race his way out of debt, given an entry-level job changing oil at his dad’s Chevy dealership and, as a youngster on the minor-league circuit, expected to rebuild every car he tore up.

“Dale Jr. wasn’t the boy next door. He was the farm-boy next door,” Wheeler said. “We needed that because NASCAR had gotten away from our roots, and that hurt us badly in some ways. With his father’s demise, we needed an Earnhardt badly. He was a breath of fresh air when we really needed it.”........"
https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/a ... 1b5b9a77cf

[93henfan]

The irony of Humpy Wheeler (and by extension Bruton Smith and Bob Bahre) lamenting the sorrow of the Appalachian race fan is thick. These are the guys who bought North Wilkesboro to close it and give its dates to Texas and New Hampshire. Then they perpetuated the Ferko suit to get another date for Texas at the expense of Rockingham. Darlington even gave up the traditional Labor Day spot for the Southern 500 to Texas. So, two tracks and four races stolen from North Carolina and the loss of Darlington on Labor Day from 2004-2014 and now they wax poetic about the poor Appalachian race fan?

Fuck them.

[Gil Dobie]

Good that someone can face the reality of concussions, and chose his time to retire. Most people in this country would love to retire at his age and not have to worry about money.

[ALPHAGRIZ1]

Speaking of concussions, did you guys hear Dale Jr is retiring?

[bandl]

Speaking of concussions, did you guys hear Dale Jr is retiring?

I got this, Cluck...


Who?

[ALPHAGRIZ1]

Who what?

Hey did you hear Dale Jr is going to retire?

[bandl]

Who what?

Hey did you hear Dale Jr is going to retire?

I did not.

When will I hear about it?

[ALPHAGRIZ1]

Who what?

Hey did you hear Dale Jr is going to retire?

I did not.

When will I hear about it?

Rumor is he's going to announce it soon

Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk

[89Hen]

The irony of Humpy Wheeler (and by extension Bruton Smith and Bob Bahre) lamenting the sorrow of the Appalachian race fan is thick. These are the guys who bought North Wilkesboro to close it and give its dates to Texas and New Hampshire. Then they perpetuated the Ferko suit to get another date for Texas at the expense of Rockingham. Darlington even gave up the traditional Labor Day spot for the Southern 500 to Texas. So, two tracks and four races stolen from North Carolina and the loss of Darlington on Labor Day from 2004-2014 and now they wax poetic about the poor Appalachian race fan?

Fuck them.

I was just hoping you might give me some insight into the evolution of the NASCAR economy in the Southern states. My contention is that prior to Humpy Wheeler, the economic modalities, especially in the southern states, could most aptly be characterized as agrarian pre-capitalist.

[93henfan]

Brilliant.

[CAA Flagship]

The irony of Humpy Wheeler (and by extension Bruton Smith and Bob Bahre) lamenting the sorrow of the Appalachian race fan is thick. These are the guys who bought North Wilkesboro to close it and give its dates to Texas and New Hampshire. Then they perpetuated the Ferko suit to get another date for Texas at the expense of Rockingham. Darlington even gave up the traditional Labor Day spot for the Southern 500 to Texas. So, two tracks and four races stolen from North Carolina and the loss of Darlington on Labor Day from 2004-2014 and now they wax poetic about the poor Appalachian race fan?

Fuck them.

I was just hoping you might give me some insight into the evolution of the NASCAR economy in the Southern states. My contention is that prior to Humpy Wheeler, the economic modalities, especially in the southern states, could most aptly be characterized as agrarian pre-capitalist.

Tobacco sales are down due to a ban on tobacco sponsorships.

[93henfan]

I was just hoping you might give me some insight into the evolution of the NASCAR economy in the Southern states. My contention is that prior to Humpy Wheeler, the economic modalities, especially in the southern states, could most aptly be characterized as agrarian pre-capitalist.

Tobacco sales are down due to a ban on tobacco sponsorships.

Yankee emigration and the rise of microbreweries too, yo!

[ALPHAGRIZ1]

The irony of Humpy Wheeler (and by extension Bruton Smith and Bob Bahre) lamenting the sorrow of the Appalachian race fan is thick. These are the guys who bought North Wilkesboro to close it and give its dates to Texas and New Hampshire. Then they perpetuated the Ferko suit to get another date for Texas at the expense of Rockingham. Darlington even gave up the traditional Labor Day spot for the Southern 500 to Texas. So, two tracks and four races stolen from North Carolina and the loss of Darlington on Labor Day from 2004-2014 and now they wax poetic about the poor Appalachian race fan?

Fuck them.

I was just hoping you might give me some insight into the evolution of the NASCAR economy in the Southern states. My contention is that prior to Humpy Wheeler, the economic modalities, especially in the southern states, could most aptly be characterized as agrarian pre-capitalist.

Do you like apples?

[BDKJMU]

The irony of Humpy Wheeler (and by extension Bruton Smith and Bob Bahre) lamenting the sorrow of the Appalachian race fan is thick. These are the guys who bought North Wilkesboro to close it and give its dates to Texas and New Hampshire. Then they perpetuated the Ferko suit to get another date for Texas at the expense of Rockingham. Darlington even gave up the traditional Labor Day spot for the Southern 500 to Texas. So, two tracks and four races stolen from North Carolina and the loss of Darlington on Labor Day from 2004-2014 and now they wax poetic about the poor Appalachian race fan?

**** them.

I was just hoping you might give me some insight into the evolution of the NASCAR economy in the Southern states. My contention is that prior to Humpy Wheeler, the economic modalities, especially in the southern states, could most aptly be characterized as agrarian pre-capitalist.

We seem to have one of these discussions every year...
http://www.championshipsubdivision.com/ ... rn#p890495

[93henfan]

I was just hoping you might give me some insight into the evolution of the NASCAR economy in the Southern states. My contention is that prior to Humpy Wheeler, the economic modalities, especially in the southern states, could most aptly be characterized as agrarian pre-capitalist.

We seem to have one of these discussions every year...
http://www.championshipsubdivision.com/ ... rn#p890495

Im pretty sure 89 was trying to be funny. You should try too!!!

[Ibanez]

Mooresville isn't a bad place to retire. HE's got plenty of company as it's where so many NASCAR drivers live.

[93henfan]

Mooresville isn't a bad place to retire. HE's got plenty of company as it's where so many NASCAR drivers live.

With $350M, you could make Detroit a not so bad place to retire.

Jr lives on 200 acres. He's built his own replica old west town on his property. He has go kart tracks and several old NASCAR's strewn about. Dude has always been a little flaky, but I still like him.

[Grizalltheway]

Mooresville isn't a bad place to retire. HE's got plenty of company as it's where so many NASCAR drivers live.

With $350M, you could make Detroit a not so bad place to retire.

Jr lives on 200 acres. He's built his own replica old west town on his property. He has go kart tracks and several old NASCAR's strewn about. Dude has always been a little flaky, but I still like him.

On cinder blocks?

[93henfan]

With $350M, you could make Detroit a not so bad place to retire.

Jr lives on 200 acres. He's built his own replica old west town on his property. He has go kart tracks and several old NASCAR's strewn about. Dude has always been a little flaky, but I still like him.

On cinder blocks?

It's North Carolina. Is that question even necessary? Of course it's on blocks. There's almost certainly a rusted washer and dryer next to them.

[Ibanez]

On cinder blocks?

It's North Carolina. Is that question even necessary? Of course it's on blocks. There's almost certainly a rusted washer and dryer next to them.

RIght? Its like WTAG doesn't even UNDERSTAND the culture out here....