FOX Sports on MSN – NASCAR – Racing’s prodigal son can’t catch a break.

Here’s a very well-written piece — about a favorite American son.

Junior has been blessed and burdened with racing’s most famous name. And now even those who wanted to deride NASCAR as hillbilly entertainment could see the possibilities. As a family saga, the Earnhardts melded elements of Shakespeare and Disney. Theirs was now a story of fathers and sons, of ghosts and wicked stepmothers.

Mark Kriegel also astutely points out that Max Siegel is Dale Earnhardt Inc’s “vice president of global operations” and that a NASCAR team needs such a thing is pretty incredible.

Siegel, by the way, has a law degree from Notre Dame.

Stock car racin’ ain’t what it used ta be. That’s fer shure.