Earnhardt to join Hendrick Motorsports for '08 season

MOORESVILLE, N.C. -- Sixteen years after they jokingly put pen to napkin, roughly four years after his own son predicted it would happen one day and Rick Hendrick scoffed at the idea, Dale Earnhardt Jr. has joined the team at Hendrick Motorsports.

Hendrick and Earnhardt made it official with an 11 a.m. ET announcement Wednesday at JR Motorsports, the facility owned by Earnhardt out of which he operates a Busch Series team and other budding racing ventures (watch video).

The outfit Earnhardt is joining at Hendrick is no budding racing venture, but rather the organization that clearly sits at the head of the Nextel Cup table, stock-car racing's most elite series. Earnhardt joins a stable of drivers that includes superstars Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson, and up-and-coming talent Casey Mears.

As expected, the odd man out in the development will be current Hendrick driver Kyle Busch. Rick Hendrick said that he expects Busch to finish out this season as driver of the No. 5 Chevrolet, but that Busch will be released from his contract at the end of this season.

Busch's contract was to run through 2008, and Hendrick said that he and Busch mutually agreed that it would be best for Hendrick Motorsports and the young driver to part ways.

Meanwhile, Hendrick and Earnhardt could not contain their smiles Wednesday at the thought of what might lie ahead for them over the course of a five-year contract for Earnhardt. When he said five weeks earlier that he definitely was leaving Dale Earnhardt Inc., the racing operation founded by his late father, Earnhardt said he wanted to drive for the organization that would give him the best opportunities to win races and championships.

He said Wednesday that he firmly believes he has found that in Hendrick Motorsports.

"I had hoped to have a decision by mid-summer, but I had no idea how long this would take because I had never been in this position," Earnhardt said as he opened a packed news conference. "I wanted to take as much time as possible to find the right team, the team that was right for me as a person and one where I could compete for championships. As I sit here today, I can say with complete honesty that I found and accomplished that goal.

"We talked with many teams, but one stood out above the rest. It became apparent to me the man that I wanted to drive for. I've known him since childhood. He competes with integrity, and more importantly he wins races."

Then Earnhardt, dressed casually in a gray shirt that was open at the collar and not tucked in and wearing blue jeans, introduced the man that needs no introduction in NASCAR: Hendrick.

They quickly recounted the story of when Earnhardt was first introduced to Hendrick in Topeka, Kan., after competing in a series of dirt races in the Midwest with long-time Cup driver Ken Schrader. Earnhardt was only 16 at the time and still feeling his way as a teenager, let alone as a racecar driver.

But after meeting him, Hendrick jokingly pulled out a napkin and told Earnhardt he wanted to sign him to a driver's contract.

"Obviously he was a pretty smart businessman. So I thought even if it was a joke, I'd better sign it," Earnhardt said Wednesday.

Years later, when Earnhardt was about to run his first Busch Series race, Hendrick sidled up next to him at the pre-race driver's meeting and reminded him of the pact made on the napkin in Topeka.

"You remember you signed a contract with me, right?" Hendrick said.

"I thought you forgot about that," Junior replied.

"No, I didn't forget about it," Hendrick said. "It's just that I'm scared of your daddy."

As they recounted the story Wednesday, both laughed heartily. Truth be told, despite countless fans who still refuse to believe it, Hendrick actually got along quite nicely with the elder Earnhardt. He even knew and greatly respected Ralph Earnhardt, Junior's grandfather who helped Hendrick get his start in racing.

So arriving at Wednesday's announcement was not nearly as much of a stretch as many believed. Yet Hendrick also had trouble envisioning it when his own son, Ricky, predicted about four years ago that Dale Jr. would one day drive for Hendrick Motorsports.

The plan was for Ricky, who passed away tragically in a plane crash before it could transpire, to eventually become more involved in the Hendrick operation -- and Ricky insisted to his father that one day he would get his good friend Earnhardt to drive for them.

"I was like, 'OK, right. I believe that,'" the elder Hendrick recalled Wednesday. "It was something he had in the back of his mind, and I didn't think it would ever come to pass. But I think it was something [Ricky] always planned because of their relationship and the respect he had for Dale, that that was his goal in life. For me now to see it happen is really special for me."

There are still many smaller -- but nonetheless important -- details to be worked out, including whether or not a deal can be negotiated with DEI to let Earnhardt use the No. 8; and whether or not Hendrick's organization, already sponsor-rich, will be able to absorb another major one in Budweiser, which many assumed would follow Earnhardt wherever he went.

But the bottom line is that Earnhardt has signed the bottom line. The general course of his future has been mapped out, and it is in Hendrick's hands as well as his own. Both men realize that.

"I think I have a good opportunity to succeed and win a lot of races. I believe, honestly and personally, that I will carry a championship on my mantle when I'm all said and done. ... I really do want it," Earnhardt said.

Hendrick, whose teams have won 10 of 14 races this season and have captured six Cup championships since the organization opened its doors in 1984, obviously has the resources to help Earnhardt realize his dream. And the team owner desperately wants to make sure it happens.

"He made the decision to come with us based on our ability to give him what he needs to reach those goals. So that's the competitive side of me that adds pressure, because I want to deliver what he's expecting," Hendrick said. "And because of the magnitude of his space and position in the sport, with his fan base and so forth, the feeling is that everyone is going to anticipate it."

Hendrick added that he believes there will be absolutely no problems with Earnhardt co-existing in a camp that already includes fellow superstars Gordon and Johnson.

"As far as the competition inside the camp, there already is competition here with Jeff and Jimmie running for a championship [this year]. They can be friends and they can be upset when they lose a race, but then they get back together and go again. So I feel like that's going to be the same situation here," Hendrick said. "The pressure is because I want to deliver, and I'm going to do everything I can to make that happen -- because there are going to be a whole lot of people watching."