Full Throttle

After Dale Jr’s move to Hendrick Motorsports the speculation over who, or what would be his sponsor has produced no shortage of opinions.

Jerry came down on the side of Monster Energy drink then added the U.S. Navy, NesQuik, Folgers and Pepsi.

Bob and Dave Moody have also jumped on the Pepsi bandwagon and there are a few more, including my Adidas trial balloon, that I’m too lazy to track down at the moment.

But Junior may be throwing all of us unpaid pundits a curve ball.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. has signed an endorsement deal with Sony Electronics, but he still isn’t saying what role longtime sponsor Budweiser will have with him when he joins Hendrick Motorsports next season.

“I’m a big electronics fan. I’m a big computer guy. It’s products I can dig,” Earnhardt told reporters Thursday at a winery in the heart of California’s Napa Valley.

(NOTE: Jerry, he’s in your neck-of-the-woods where is your exclusive on this revolting development?)

That may just mean a Dale Jr. signature PS3 racing game will be hitting the shelves, or it could mean a whole lot more, like a 10-20 million dollar deal to “wrap” the #5/#8 in Sony logos.

In that case it would also mean all us pundits need to be fitted with red noses and search EBay for a cheap Clown Car for our commute to Dante’s seventh level of Pundits Hell.

BTW, that’s me in the orange pants. Now excuse me I’ve got an appointment with Weary Willy’s ghost to refill my flower squirt gun at the local Clown College. It takes an expert to work on such precision equipment and I’ve only reached the apprentice level of clown-dom.

UPDATE: Well that settles it then, maybe. According to this headline (Junior will sport Sony logo) and this one (Earnhardt Jr. signs with Sony for Hendrick ride) it’s a done deal.

The cost of the apparent deal to Sony? Earnhardt said he got a new digital camera out of the deal.

And a whole wad of cash but they don’t say how much.

I’m off to EBay. Sure hate to trade my Pajero for a Clown Car but it looks like my options are limited by circumstances. Unless I can pull off getting the Jokers Clown Car I’ll just have to settle for looking foolish.

Like that’s anything new right?

As for the rest of you “Clowns,” misery loves company, lets see how many we can pack into this baby.