Junior's transformation brings fresh perspective

CARNOUSTIE, Scotland -- What does one make of a world where nobody has heard of Dale Earnhardt Jr.? A world where nobody talks about Hendrick Motorsports and its dominance or cheating -- depending upon your perspective? And finally, what does one make of an English-speaking nation that isn't even aware that Tony Stewart broke through and finally won in 2007?

Beau Estes co-hosts the Jack Daniel's Post-Race Show with Nikki Alexander. It can be seen following every Nextel Cup race live on NASCAR.COM.

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These are among the questions I'm left to wonder about gazing out onto the glorious North Sea (that is only blotted out by the hundreds of snarling trucks in the television compound) in advance of The Open Championship.

To answer the first question -- I've asked and nobody, literally no one at all, has heard of Dale Jr. Perhaps you could drag out a dazed look and a conversation easing "the name sounds familiar" type remark at best, but he truly isn't on the map. To be fair, I wasn't completely shocked by this. I've read the papers and seen the news before and there isn't much coverage of American sports at all.

David Beckham is the only link to America that seems of any concern. He is treated in the media here much like Paris Hilton is in ours -- which is to say ridiculously overexposed to the point of becoming a cartoon -- however one friend pointed out that "at least he's accomplished something." Fair enough.

Anyhow, the distance from NASCAR has provided an opportunity to gain some perspective -- preventing me from getting caught up in the minutia of pit-stop pratfalls and the like. More importantly and to the point, it's provided me an opportunity to review the last few months of Dale Jr.'s life from afar and really try to piece together what has happened from a "you've got to be kidding me" point of view.

Before I get into this let me state for the record that I am tremendously happy for Dale, however, the series of moves that have led to his future station in life are both unexpected and stunning. It shouldn't be a surprise to anyone that he is off to create his own legacy apart from DEI. By all accounts, he and his step-mother have never been close. But this is Dale Jr. -- son of a legend and legend in the making in his own right -- pride of the Southern NASCAR fan and Budweiser-drinking, No. 8 lovers everywhere.

My point is this: Last year Dale Jr. was in the midst of a resurgent season that saw him in the Chase, winning a race and truly giving his fans -- and particularly those fans that love Junior and hate the white knights of HMS (Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon, especially) -- a horse in the race. As long as Junior was on the track, the right guy had a shot at winning in the minds of many.

Flash forward to this season and Dale Jr. struggled out of the gate, has yet to win a race, and seen his teammate take the lead in the DEI garage. And that is just on the track.

Through the eyes of some he has also joined forces with the Dark Side of NASCAR (he'll call Gordon a teammate next year), ended his relationship with Bud drinkers (through no fault of his own, but still ...), and then according to several reports is getting ready to align himself with the non-Southern soft drink in the NASCAR world, Pepsi-Cola. Coca-Cola be damned. (Continued)