Childress, Gibbs ponder the driver who got away (cont'd)

"Hendrick, obviously, as a driver, it's a place where certainly you would want to look at going," RCR driver Jeff Burton said. "Junior did what I think most drivers in the garage would have done. Rick Hendrick runs a great program, and has a lot of good people over there. From the outside looking in, I'd say he made a good decision."

Asked if there was any disappointment at RCR over Earnhardt's decision, Burton took a long pause. "I'd prefer you talk to Richard about that," he said. "I wouldn't .... yeah, I'd prefer you talk to Richard about that."

Childress was tougher to find than the game he stalked in the Southern Hemisphere. The team owner returned late this week from New Zealand, where he bagged obscure animals such as the chamois (which looks like an antelope), the thar (which has horns, a heavy coat, and lives in the high mountains), and the red stag (an elk-like beast with majestic horns that can have up to 30 points). Reporters gathered outside an RCR team hauler for more than an hour Friday, only to learn that the jet-lagged Childress had fallen asleep in his motor coach.

He was finally tracked down after Friday's ARCA race, where RCR developmental driver Tim McCreadie finished fourth. But the subject of the conversation was Earnhardt.

"I just want the best for him," Childress said. "I've known Junior since he was a kid. I think we could have won races and we could have won championships. I'm sure there are a lot of reasons, and I'm just happy for him that he made the decision. You're not going to make everybody happy when you make a decision, and the main thing is to make yourself happy."

RCR wasn't the only team Earnhardt turned down. He also spoke with Joe Gibbs Racing, but driver Denny Hamlin got the feeling a week ago that the marriage wasn't made to be.

"Their last conversation with that whole camp, it sounded like they already had their minds made up before that whole deal even started," said Hamlin, a good friend of Earnhardt's. "I think going to other teams was really just a motion that they went through. It was a protocol kind of thing."

On Wednesday, Earnhardt admitted that he favored Hendrick all along. Hamlin could see the end result coming, saying Gibbs officials "were kind of a little discouraged after their last conversation, and basically said the chances were very slim."

When Earnhardt announced his intention to split from DEI, Hamlin talked openly about how much he'd like to add his friend as a teammate. That led to some disappointment when Junior's ultimate decision was revealed.

"A little bit of disappointment, yeah," Hamlin said. "I think you end up putting yourself in a box when that happens. I can't talk about that too much, but for the most part I feel it could be better in the long haul for our team to stay the way it is. Because basically Gibbs kind of flies under the radar, and Hendrick right now is going to have all the stars. They've got three of the big four drivers in their stable, and whether that's good for one race team or not, I'm not too sure."