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.

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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.

Drivers, even immensely popular ones, are all replaceable; there's always someone else ready and willing to fill in behind the wheel. Not so with sponsors, whose marketing dollars are the very lifeblood of the sport. When they go away, teams suffer and fall. Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson could both leave Hendrick Motorsports tomorrow, and the eight-time championship organization will still be as rock-solid -- although maybe not quite as successful -- as ever. Yet if DuPont and Lowe's pick up stakes, the situation becomes much more tenuous. Similarly, the fall of the Earnhardt team from one of the elite programs in the garage area to the somewhat marginal operation it is today has less to do with its ability to hold on to Dale Jr. than its capacity for retaining sponsors.

No more No. 8

After trying to piece together sponsorship, Earnhardt Ganassi Racing has decided to shut down the No. 8 driven by Aric Almirola.

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The current state of the Earnhardt team, and the shuttering of the No. 8 car, isn't due solely to the loss of Earnhardt Jr. It's due to the losses of Pennzoil and NAPA and Budweiser and the U.S. Army, all major primary car sponsors to depart the Garage Majal in the past six years. It's easy to forget now that as recently as 2003, the entity then called DEI was one of the top teams on the Cup circuit, with two cars capable of winning races. The next year they fielded a program that won six events, second-most on the circuit. But in the time since, they've absolutely bled sponsors -- first it was Pennzoil, which now serves as a co-primary on Kevin Harvick's car at Richard Childress Racing; then NAPA, which followed Michael Waltrip to his own team; then Budweiser, which after Earnhardt Jr.'s departure went looking for another star to align itself with, and found it in Kasey Kahne.

And then after last season, a double-blow: Menard's went with driver Paul Menard to Yates Racing, and the Army -- always a dicey prospect, given that its status is reviewed on an annual basis like all government-controlled sponsorships -- left for the higher-profile Stewart-Haas operation. No team that once harbored legitimate championship hopes has endured such a financial bloodletting. It's ludicrous to think that by staying at DEI, Earnhardt Jr. would have been able to wave a magic wand and keep all that from happening. In fact, some of it occurred while he was there, in spite of his popularity and on-track success. No question, companies love to be associated with NASCAR's most popular driver, who has a proven track record for raising their profiles and increasing their sales. But in the face of a recessed economy and a nose-diving sponsor market, even Dale Jr. would have been able to do only so much.

So wither the No. 8, a victim of not necessarily Earnhardt Jr.'s departure for Hendrick, not necessarily mismanagement on the part of the former DEI brain trust, but a series of market conditions capable of bringing any organization to its knees. Remember that in the summer of 2007 -- when the haggling between Earnhardt Jr. and Teresa was at its height -- the stock market was in the 13,000 range, the mortgage crisis was only a rumor, and sponsors were much more abundant than they are now. It would have been far from outrageous for any team, especially one with a winning tradition, the Earnhardt legacy, and bankable drivers like Martin Truex Jr. and Mark Martin, to assume that financial backing could be found. And for a little while, at least, it was.

In fact, Martin's run last year at Phoenix was something of a vindication for an organization that was dismissed in many minds after Earnhardt Jr. jumped ship. But in NASCAR, money evaporates faster than water in the desert, and these days can be equally as difficult to find. No question, Martin's performance on the quirky mile race track gave everyone at the Earnhardt shop hope. But as is the case so often in the arid southwest, it ultimately proved only a mirage.

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.