Thought I'd take a moment from the post I'm currently composing to address something mentioned by Antonette in her most excellent blog, that being the "can you believe he actually likes Junior now" notion.

Yes, I do.  No, I have not been abducted by aliens, possessed by demons, taken over by alien life forms, or replaced with a look-alike sound-alike.  Really.  It's true.  I actually like Dale Earnhardt Jr.

The true story of how all this came about.

The main reason I started blogging about NASCAR back in August of 2003 was because in previous years I had endured numerous online run-ins in different chat boards with Earnhardt fans, be it father or Junior, that had left an extremely sour taste in my mouth.  To be accurate, I wouldn't call them fans.  Possessed worshipers would be a more accurate description.  Their contempt and outright hatred of anything not having to do with Earnhardt left me going, "Well, if this is the kind of fan they attract, what does this say about them?"  This reached its lowest of lows in mid-2001 when the then-owner of a diecast collector's board I had frequented for years violated his own rules for the board of never deleting a post, which as an aside nearly destroyed the place due to the flame wars that broke out in such an uncontrolled environment, by not only deleting mine but also banning me from the board.  After stewing about this for well over a year, when I started becoming more aware of what blogging was about and AOL, which at the time still nurtured and promoted its own community before throwing them and the vast majority of its own people under the bus in favor of becoming an online pop culture cesspool, first added a blogging feature for its members I jumped on it.  Ah-ha!  Here was a venue by which I could say my piece in peace.

In the course of working out my frustrations, which translated into meandering through a minefield starting with the aforementioned self-made stereotypes, from there moving on to whiny diecast dealers followed by the traditional media's disrespect for and/or incompetence covering NASCAR and then other bloggers making being someone trying to establish the medium as a forum for legitimate news and commentary far more difficult than it already was with their juvenile antics, strange things started happening.  For one, I mellowed; the long-lasting effects of visiting Kenny Irwin Jr.'s grave in September of 2001 gradually working their way through me until I found it increasingly difficult if not outright impossible to disrespect any driver.  Another odd occurrence is that despite my best efforts to avoid it, I gained a certain level of popularity without doing the things one normally associates with online NASCAR popularity: no link on Jayski, no promotion via being housed on a traditional news media outlet.  Finally, after a while I hit the groove wherein I did my best work, mixing unabashed sentimentality with tongue-in-cheek, sometimes sardonic and sometimes deliberately bizarre humor.  Beneath it all, a deep love for NASCAR and auto racing supplemented by a growing desire to give those who came by the blog a reason to think or smile.  Preferably both. While this was all going on, I met more than a few Dale Jr. fans who in no way resembled the ones with whom I had often crossed swords in my pre-blogging days.  There was Antonette, and Stephen, and Bob, and others.  Passionate fans of Dale Jr. not because they were attempting to achieve vindication for their lack of a life by vicariously living through him, but because of their affection for him as he was and for who he was.  I ran across other people involved in different areas who testified he was a genuinely nice guy.  Quite the eye-opener for yours truly.

There was one nagging issue, though.  I despise alcohol, and cheering for any driver who bore such sponsorship was impossible.  So while earlier I had left aside disliking Dale Jr., that was going to be as good as it would get.  Period.

And then the hitherto unthinkable happened.  While taking no sides in the Dale Jr. and Kelly vs. Teresa conflict -- stepchildren and a stepparent not getting along was neither news nor any concern of mine -- as things deteriorated it became clear Dale Jr. would not drive for DEI in 2008.  In a mess of a season where Toyota made an embarrassing entry to Cup and the Car Of Tomorrow became the universally-loathed Car Of Right Now, this was one more blow to the constant that had been NASCAR.  DEI without Dale Earnhardt Jr.?  Dale Earnhardt Jr. without DEI?  What would be next... Dale Jr. becoming Jeff Gordon's teammate?

Well, now that you mention it...

In one of those rare occasions for me when a hunch based on an observation panned out, my hunch that Dale Jr. would replace Kyle Busch at Hendrick based on the look Rick Hendrick's face bore when he was talking to Busch's then-crew chief Alan Gustafson after his driver's immature recklessness had taken himself and his brother out of the all-star race proved correct.  Yes, as a longtime Hendrick fan I did rather enjoy extending the welcoming hand to those members of the Junior Nation who had before then made a cottage industry out of hating Hendrick without cause, slightly modifying those famed words from the arch-nemesis the Borg on Star Trek: The Next Generation: "We are Hendrick.  Resistance is futile.  You will be... assimilated."  That aside, the fact Dale Jr. was willing to accept the "okay, you have to win now" pressure of signing on with Hendrick along with accepting a shared spotlight with Gordon and Jimmie Johnson spoke volumes about his commitment to racing based not on last name, but rather desire.

I was relieved when Hendrick said there was no room for Anheuser-Busch on Dale Jr.'s new car due to existing sponsor commitments, thus eliminating the final barrier between me and saying "go Junior" on those rare occasions when Gordon wasn't in a position to win.  You never abandon your main man.  But there's always room for "I like him too."

So yes, in a fashion I am now a Dale Earnhardt Jr. fan.

Strange world, huh.

Don't forget the "Diary For Dale" contest running throughout the month of February!  You can win one of two 2008 Dale Jr. diecast cars!  Click here for more information!