Submitted by NASCAR Ranting and Raving Blog

Texas Motor Speedway’s newest ad campaign has four different billboards featuring the images of Dale Earnhardt Jr., Tony Stewart, Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon. No probelm there, right? On each driver’s billboard there is a “personal reason” as to why fans should go to the the race on April 6th. But some are not without controversy, especially Dale Jr’s - although some Jeff Gordon fans might get a little riled up by his as well.

Each billboard is catchy. Tony Stewart’s says, “Reason #20: Road Rage”, while Jimmie Johnson’s declares, “Reason 48: Twice as good as 24″, and Jeff Gordon’s states, “Reason #24: 81 Cup wins. Zip at Texas”. But perhaps the most controversial is Dale Jr’s which slams Teresa Earnhardt by stating, “Reason #88: Step Mom”.

With a well placed phone call by Kelley Earnhradt Elledge, President of JR Motorsports, to TMS president Eddie Gossage, the Dale Jr billboards will be changed over the next 2 weeks and replaced with the new slogan, “Reason #88: New Car Smell”.

“I had a conversation with Kelley yesterday. I said, ‘If you and Junior are unhappy and want it to come down, it will come down.’ She said, ‘We still have a lot of friends and relatives at DEI. The point is we have to move on and the billboards don’t help us,’” Gossage told media.

According to Gossage, he got Tony Stewart’s permission for his billboard as he thought that Tony might not like it, but “I emailed it to him and he loved it.”

Praises must go out to Kelley and Dale Jr for taking the high road on this and moving on. The past, no matter how difficult, is still the past.

Photo Credits: Kim Ramon at racingwin.com

I must apologize if my spelling is off, the spell checker is not not working for some reason.

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