I've read and read and read

and here is the truth. Whether you want to accept it or believe it, it is. I challenge you to put your feelings aside and look at the facts. It's been hard for me but I'll forever be fan no matter what team he drives for...

In a rare interview, Teresa Earnhardt didn't just call out Dale Earnhardt Jr. as his team owner, but delivered the maternal tsk, tsk of a stepmother.

"Right now the ball is in his court to decide whether he wants to be a NASCAR driver or a public personality," Teresa told the Wall Street Journal last December.

Wednesday, in no uncertain terms, Dale Earnhardt Jr. responded.

He isn't just walking away from Dale Earnhardt Inc, his dad's old company now run by Teresa, for superficial reasons or personal fissures. He isn't going to a new place to advance his "public personality."

Dale Jr. is signing with Hendrick Motorsports, the best and most talent-rich team in NASCAR for a single reason – to win.

He isn't going there to have control, because he won't. He isn't going to a team where he is the most accomplished driver, because he isn't. He isn't going to a company that is desperate for his star power and revenue streams, because it's fine without him. He isn't going to somewhere he will be the undisputed center of attention, because he won't be.

He's going to a team that has won 10 of 14 races this year and six championships since 1995.

He's going to a place where the No. 1 driver, Jeff Gordon, has four Cup titles to his none, not to mention a fan base and fame level that almost can challenge his own. Teammate and defending Nextel Cup champ Jimmie Johnson has four victories this season alone, double Junior's humble two since 2005.

If he wanted to be a public personality or a team owner or a prima donna, he'd have signed elsewhere. If he feared head-to-head competition or the possibility of being proven a lesser driver than Gordon – they'll have essentially the same cars now – he'd have chosen another course.

If this was about fame or fortune or all the things Teresa Earnhardt was talking about, Junior wouldn't be going to Hendrick.

Of course, the idea that Earnhardt Jr. – with his famous name, thick accent and hard-charging style the epitome of old-school NASCAR – would wind up teaming with Gordon – the poster child of the new growth of the sport – is a bit jarring.

For so long to cheer for Junior was to boo Gordon. And now?

Junior has spoken. It isn't about perceived rifts or stereotypes. It isn't about who will up his star wattage or pump his ego. This is about driving, about winning, about taking the championships that the 32-year-old believes he has in him. This is about no more year-plus droughts.

Teresa Earnhardt wondered about her stepson's priorities, publicly questioned her cash machine employee, dared him to respond.

Now he has. Now he walks. Now the answer is oh-so clear.