As it turns out, a driver wasn't DEI's biggest loss

It would have been the most triumphant moment of the post-Dale Earnhardt Jr. era at Dale Earnhardt Inc., the instance that showed the world that yes indeed, the organization that NASCAR's most popular driver left behind could thrive without him. Mark Martin, driving the No. 8 car that his predecessor made famous, had the field covered as the laps wound down last spring at Phoenix International Raceway. But then the fuel began to run low, and the mileage calculations began to get murky, and a vehicle that had been out front for 68 laps was forced to give up the lead and pit with 10 to go.

A look back

The No. 8 has been in NASCAR since 1949 with famous drivers such as Joe Weatherly, Ed Negre and of course, Dale Earnhardt Jr.

• Complete numerology

It was a heartbreaking fifth-place finish, both for a driver trying to win for the first time in three years and a race team trying to prove it could walk without the aid of the man who had effectively carried it for the previous six seasons. Sure, there were better finishes -- Martin placed third his next race at Richmond -- but that one near-miss in the desert was his one race to win. Looking back today, it also proved the last hurrah for a No. 8 car that a year later won't even be making the trip to Phoenix. Because of a lack of sponsorship money, the program was suspended last week.

So now the once-legendary No. 8 car, the vehicle that inspired legions of red-clad fans, the number tattooed into biceps and shaved onto heads and stuck on too many rear bumpers to count, is gone -- at least temporarily. Teresa Earnhardt, now co-owner of the merged Earnhardt Ganassi Racing team, is taking a lot of heat for this, as is to be expected. After all, she passed on the prospect of allowing Earnhardt Jr. to take the number with him to Hendrick Motorsports when he split from DEI after the 2007 season. So now the races will go on without what was once the most popular car number in all of NASCAR, the numeral that Dale Earnhardt used for his first Cup race in 1975.

How did this happen? It's easy to sit back and opine that this is all the price of letting Dale Jr. go, that had Teresa just given her stepson 51 percent of the company like he asked for, DEI would still be humming along as a single entity rather than half of a merged company that's strapped for sponsorship cash. Of course, that's also turning a blind eye to economic reality. Because the one entity that DEI ultimately couldn't afford to part with, the one missing ingredient that eventually sidelined the No. 8 car, wasn't a driver at all. DEI could survive without Dale Jr. But losing a big-money sponsor like Budweiser turned out to be a punch to the solar plexus that left the organization gasping for air. (Continued)