Silly Season gets longer as sales continue to be larger (cont'd)

Oddly enough, Earnhardt's apparel did not take a nose dive when he announced he was leaving DEI and headed for Hendrick. In fact, it was reported that sales were brisk. That counters the previous trend registered when first Kurt Busch and then Jamie McMurray bolted their respective teams for Penske Racing and Roush Racing, respectively.

There is still the question of sponsorship for Junior. Budweiser has long been associated with Earnhardt, and there are contractual minefields to navigate before it is known where the King of Beers will wind up for 2008.

Should Bud elect to try and stay with Earnhardt, what of Hendrick's current sponsors for the No. 5, Kellogg's and Carquest? Still another question needs to be answered, it seems, which will require more time.

If you doubt that NASCAR is about big business, take a look at the following numbers from Forbes Magazine: Forbes estimates that the average NASCAR team is worth $120 million and average revenue was $84 million. The first figure represents a whopping 67-percent increase over 2006 numbers.

To give you an idea of what Earnhardt has traded up to, Hendrick Motorsports ranks second among all NASCAR teams with a value of $297 million and annual revenue of $163 million.

DEI, on the other hand, ranks sixth at $118 million and $96 million. That's a difference of, respectively, $179 million on the one hand and $67 million on the other. For comparison purposes, Roush topped the list at $316 million in value and $189 million in revenue, with one more team than Hendrick and two more than DEI.

Those numbers might help explain why several of the top team owners are clamoring to add teams for 2008. Currently, Roush leads the way with five teams, one of which he'll have to cut before 2010 to get down to NASCAR's four-team limit. Hendrick is the lone four-car operation, while Joe Gibbs Racing (third in value/revenue), Evernham Motorsports (fourth), Richard Childress Racing (fifth), Chip Ganassi Racing (eighth) and Michael Waltrip Racing (ninth) all have three-car teams.

Robert Yates Racing (seventh) and Penske Racing (10th) are both two-car teams. If any of those teams make a move to add cars, it should be soon, because of the timeline for getting everything up and running by February's 50th anniversary of the Daytona 500.