dale jr new car

Dale Earnhardt Jr. Has A Hand In The New Look; Sister Kelley Makes The 88 Happen
It's all over but the waiting now.

It started with Dale Earnhardt Jr. announcing he was leaving Dale Earnhardt Inc., then announcing he was joining Hendrick Motorsports to the final pieces of the puzzle being put in place Thursday when Earnhardt and team owner Rick Hendrick announced their primary sponsors and car number.

Earnhardt unveiled his No. 88 Mountain Dew AMP Energy drink and National Guard cars to a room full of reporters Wednesday in Dallas.

Earnhardt, who had become the face of Budweiser sponsorship, will go in a wholly different direction with the energy drink and military sponsorship. But Earnhardt promises that the change in sponsors will not change the personality that has helped to make him arguably the most popular driver in NASCAR.

"Well, the persona, my personality, hasn't changed at all," Earnhardt said. "There are just some new partners in the fold. I'm really excited to be pairing up with Mountain Dew and AMP especially, to be able to work with AMP. When they got me up at [5 a.m. Wednesday] I've had a chance to really try out the effectiveness of the product. I'm pretty pleased to be sitting here and not yawning in front of you guys."

Earnhardt told those on hand that he had a hand in designing the look of the cars he will drive beginning next season.

"Me and a friend of mine named Kevin King, who helped design a lot of the JR Motorsports stuff up to this point - logos, race cars, what have you - we put together several ideas," Earnhardt said. "With our partners' help here, Mountain Dew, AMP Energy, the National Guard, and also a lot of people at Rick's shop also pitched in.

"We just kind of tweaked and molded to come up with the paint schemes. . . . I'm really, really proud of them. I think they're really, really good-looking cars. The sponsors and the numbers all pop well. The scheme is basic and clean. I really enjoy it.

"I told Rick when we first started talking about the contract that it was really important to me that it was in the contract that my car had color matching side skirts. He calls my sister and jokes with Kelley [Earnhardt-Elledge], says, 'He doesn't really care about the big stuff; he's a real nitpicker'. We've had a lot of fun with those little things.

"But we did do one thing that I was -- we painted the rear deck of the car flat black, which is sort of consistent with the Corvette that me and my father raced in 2001, which I thought was a really neat part about that car."

Since Earnhardt and Hendrick announced their partnership in June speculation was rampant concerning what number Earnhardt would run for his new team. It only became a hotter topic when it was realized there was no way DEI owner Teresa Earnhardt was going to let Earnhardt run the No. 8 at Hendrick.

Then the 88 simply fell into their lap when Robert Yates offered it up when Kelley Earnhardt-Elledge was talking to Yates about the availability of the No. 28.

"We were looking at everything with an 8 in it," Hendrick said. "When we couldn't get the 8, we were trying to find something with an 8 that wasn't used.

"The 28 was available. It wasn't being used. Trying to be sensitive to the Yates family because that was the number they used. They weren't using it, and Kelley started the conversations.

"Junior had 88 on his Busch car. His granddad drove that number. That's always been a good-looking number on that car. I like it better, the looks of it, than any number we were actually looking at."

Said Earnhardt: "I like the fact that the number has some history. That makes me feel very proud to have it. I'm very excited about it. That was what some of the other options sort of lacked, was that they didn't have any true history or true greatness behind them, no substance.

"So this was really sort of a gold mine, in effect, for me because of the heritage that it had. I was really proud of that, and very happy that we were able to be part of that and to make that our own.

"I was really trying to do the best I could to do good by my fans because that was very important for them. That was one of the more popular questions, is would it have an 8 in it? What's the number? What's the number? So I think they can be twice as happy about the situation. It's got to be sort of a relief for them and they got to be pretty happy about it. I know I've been really excited to make this announcement, not only with the sponsors but the number as well. So this is a great, great day for me."

Want to ride with Dale Earnhardt Jr.? Well, we can't put you in his Chevrolet Monte Carlo for one thing, there's only one seat but we can put you inside his head.

Clint Bowyer chose the right moment to grab his first Nextel Cup victory, as he dominated Sunday's Sylvania 300 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon. Bowyer led 222 of the 300 laps after starting from the Bud Pole position, and scored the maximum amount of points in the first race of the 2007 Chase for the Nextel Cup. Bowyer is now fourth in points, only 15 points behind point leader Jimmie Johnson, who finished sixth. The top seven finishers were all among the 12 drivers competing for this year's title, including Jeff Gordon who finished second and Tony Stewart who finished third. Dale Earnhardt Jr. and the No. 8 Budweiser team ran among the top-five positions for much of the afternoon, but a strategic gamble back-fired after a lap 165 pit stop, and Dale Jr. spun out on lap 180. While Dale Jr. did not make contact with anything, the spin proved costly for track position as it dropped the Bud car to the 25th position. The team spent the remaining laps trying to make-up the lost ground and finished 16th, the final car on the lead lap. Dale Jr. remained 13th in points, 41 markers ahead of the 14th-place driver. The team lead four laps during the event for five bonus points.

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Thurs., 9/20 on SPEED
8 p.m. ET: The Chase is On
8:30 p.m. ET: Survival of the Fastest
Fri., 9/21 on SPEED
11 a.m. ET: NASCAR Live
1 p.m. ET: Go or Go Home
1:30 p.m. ET: Busch final practice
5 p.m. ET: NASCAR Live
7 p.m. ET: Trackside
Sat., 9/22 on SPEED
Noon ET: Busch qualifying
6 p.m. ET: Truck qualifying
7:30 p.m. ET: NASCAR Performance
8 p.m. ET: Tradin' Paint
8:30 p.m. ET: Truck race
Sun., 9/23 on SPEED
11:30 a.m. ET: NASCAR RaceDay
7 p.m. ET: SPEED Report
8 p.m. ET: NASCAR Victory Lane
9 p.m. ET: Wind Tunnel

Race Trax: Updates, live results
SPEEDTV.com's MyRaceDay
NASCAR on SPEED schedule


Key Moments
Dale Jr., starting 19th, needed only 16 laps to launch into the top-10, and then made a steady, gradual climb up the charts, finally reaching the top-five on lap 156. It was then that the team opted to make a lengthy pit stop for four tires and changes to the front shocks. After the stop, Dale Jr. restarted 16th, and then lost six positions after being punted by the 11 car of Denny Hamlin. Though he made a save on that lap, it was only a matter of three laps with debris on the tires for Dale Jr. to spin out. The spin dropped him further back in the field and the team made multiple pit stops to restore the handling and balance on the racecar. After the multiple stops, the team was on a different pit strategy than the rest of the field, and eventually took the lead on lap 246 before making a final pit stop on lap 252. Dale Jr. eventually ended the day in 16th place, the last car on the lead lap. All 43 cars that started the race were running at the end of the event.

Dale Jr. Quotes
"We might have talked ourselves into making too much of a gamble there. We were a top-five car, but we're here to win, so we made some pretty big changes on that (lap 165) pit stop. We figured if the race stayed green to the finish, we could make one more stop and take just two tires. That seemed like a great strategy. But, it meant we restarted way back in traffic and the car behaved like it was possessed. I'm kinda freaked out because I thought something was broke on the car. I just couldn't drive it - it was so loose it was like I was wreckin' every lap. I got pushed out of the groove eventually and that made it worse until I finally spun out. We changed some things back after that, and we were still fast but you can't make up that much ground on a track like this when it's so hard to pass. We dropped a lap behind at one stage after we spun, and we ran down and passed Bowyer under green flag conditions, so I feel like we had a car that was fast enough to finish in the top-three or top-five. I guess that's the gamble you take when you're trying to win..."

Best Radio Chatter
Even before the halfway point of the race, Dale Jr. was thinking ahead to the finish, emphasizing how important track position was on a track that made passing difficult.
Dale Jr: "I want two tires on the last pit stop, even if there's 100 laps to go..."
Tony Eury Jr. (crew chief): "10-4. We'll do that."
Dale Jr: "How was our lap times there?"
Eury Jr: "You were as good or better than the 24 (J. Gordon) and the 48 (J. Johnson)... the 07 (Bowyer) is in a class of his own. He and the 20 car (Stewart) are a tenth (of a second) or better a lap. That 07 is the class of the field."
After spinning on lap 180...
Dale Jr: "It was so loose I can't control it! I was spinnin' out every lap from the center (of the corner) off. We might have had a flat tire, I dunno."
Eury Jr: "Come on in and we'll put four (tires) on."
Dale Jr: "Something's messed up in the front end! Somethin' wicked! Something must be broken!"
Eury Jr: "Is it under braking?"
Dale Jr: "Something's wrong. I dunno what it is. It won't go off into the corner. It's real bad! On a scale of one to 10, it's (messed) up!"

The most surreal segment of the race took place beginning on lap 272...
Dale Jr: (alarmed) "Is that a bag of ice on the track!?!? It looks like a full bag of ice was thrown out onto the front straight!"
Eury Jr: "Alright..."
Dale Jr: (narrating on the next lap) "OK, I'll tell ya where it is....right... uh, it's gone now! It looked like a full bag of ice!"
The team chuckled quietly and some wondered if the fumes had gotten to their driver or if he was seeing a mirage... until after the race. Upon pulling up to the team's transporter, it was clear that a plastic bag was stuck to one of the air intakes on the nose of the Bud car. A bag like many teams use to hand ice to their driver during pit stops...

Dale Earnhardt Jr. figured quantity would mean quality in choosing a new number to please his massive legion of followers.
"They can be twice as happy about the situation," NASCAR's most popular driver said during a news conference Wednesday in Dallas, unveiling his switch from No. 8 to 88 in the move to powerhouse Hendrick Motorsports next season.
The green and white of Mountain Dew Amp Energy drink and blue and white of the National Guard will adorn Earnhardt's Chevrolet after seven seasons with its ubiquitous red Budweiser scheme.
Earnhardt said the new number had to include an 8 "to do good by fans." Several combinations were considered before settling on 88 for its sentimental value. Earnhardt's grandfather once drove the No. 88, whose all-star roster includes past champions Bobby Allison, Darrell Waltrip, Rusty Wallace, Benny Parsons and Joe Weatherly.
The number belonged the past 11 years to Robert Yates Racing, which won the 1999 title with an 88 driven by Dale Jarrett, an Earnhardt confidante.
"It has some history that I'm excited about," Earnhardt said. "That was what the other options lacked. They didn't have any true greatness or substance."
Earnhardt, 32, signed new deals with Adidas and Sony earlier this year. Dawn Hudson, CEO of Pepsi-Cola North America, said a Super Bowl ad with Earnhardt was "very much under consideration."
Bowyer suddenly hot
The most unheralded driver entering the 10-race, 12-man championship runoff suddenly has become its most celebrated.
"We've got a legitimate shot at this," says Clint Bowyer, who led 222 of 300 laps in Sunday's Chase for the Nextel Cup opener at New Hampshire International Speedway. "It's opened a lot of people's eyes."
Not many were paying attention to Bowyer outside of Emporia, Kan., which proclaimed July 7 as "Clint Bowyer Day" - 7-7-07 for his No. 07 Chevrolet. The 28-year-old concedes he still isn't the most famous to hail from his hometown; the city of about 30,000 between Kansas City and Wichita also claims journalist William Allen White.
But barely a decade after deciding to race cars for a living, Bowyer knows NASCAR's most coveted championship is within his grasp. After his Sylvania 300 victory, Bowyer is fourth in the standings, 15 points out of first.
"Anybody who thinks that team isn't dangerous had their head covered in the sand," Richard Childress Racing (RCR) teammate Jeff Burton says. "Clint is the future of our sport."
Bowyer trails only former champions Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart, and the Chase favorites all say Bowyer deserves title consideration in his second Cup season.
"He's going to be on all the channels and see his face and name up there on ESPN and every other racing show," Gordon says.
Fox analyst Darrell Waltrip isn't ready to proclaim Bowyer a title contender but says winning should come easier for a driver still learning to shake a short-track mentality."The hardest thing when you get to Cup is learning how to run long races," Waltrip says. "You have to realize that you've got all day. In short track racing, you got to do it all yourself. It ain't about learning how to drive. It's learning how to pace yourself."