Junior, Jeffy, and Jimmie: NASCAR's New World Order

I have deep redneck roots, and those roots do extend to NASCAR in all its gas-guzzling, cars-go-round-in-circles, beer-chugging glory. I also happen to be a Dale Earnhardt Jr. fan, mostly due to coming into the sport with a father who worships Dale Sr. and the black #3. Earlier this season Jr. announced that he would be leaving DEI, the race team started by his late father. Today, the announcement came down about who he'd be driving for next season.

Jr. will be driving for Hendrick Motorsports, the home of 4-time champ Jeff Gordon and defending champ Jimmie Johnson. So far this season, Hendrick cars have won 10 of the 14 NASCAR Nextel Cup races (Gordon and Johnson each with four, Kyle Busch and Casey Mears one each). The whole idea was to move to a team with the equipment and money-- especially money-- to win a championship. Jr. will have plenty of both.

But here's the thing and pardon me for shouting: I HATE JEFFY AND JIMMIE! They are good drivers, and Jeffy might might even be great, but having Junebug team up with them is one of the worst things that could happen to an Earnhardt fan.  It's like when Gordon passed Jr at Talladega when Jr was going for his fifth straight win there and all the fans pelted Gordon's car with beer cans. It's worse than when Sting joined the NWO back in the heyday of WCW (I told you, my redneck roots are deep). It's worse than Roger Clemens pitching for the Yankees. At least the Rocket went to Toronto first, before donning the dreaded pinstripes.

The only thing that will make this worth it is if Earnhardt wins a championship next year. Nothing short of complete domination will suffice.

The good news is that I get all new Dale Jr. T-shirts for Christmas.