Earnhardt 'amped' about car, future with Hendrick

DALLAS -- At times it was difficult to keep track of it all, or to remember that it's all about what Dale Earnhardt Jr. is going to be racing on the track beginning next season.

Little E was in the Big D Wednesday to dish out the skinny on how he came to run the No. 88 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports, less than 24 hours after an appearance in Chicago where he unveiled plans for his new candy bar named "Big Mo."

Is there ever a well-kept secret in Nextel Cup racing these days? By the time Junior's new car was unveiled at 2:30 p.m. ET, everyone pretty much knew it was going to be the No. 88 sponsored by some combination of Mountain Dew Amp Energy drink and the National Guard.

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If anyone who made the trek didn't have a clue about what was going to be on the car, the signs were everywhere as soon as they stepped foot into the Dallas Convention Center. As 18 members of the media who took advantage of a fairly-priced offer from team owner Rick Hendrick to fly in a chartered jet from Concord, N.C., to Love Field filed in, they had to sidestep several National Guardsmen on their way to a media work room laden with trays of iced Amp Energy drinks conveniently packaged in tall boy 16-ounce cans.

"This is a perfect fit for me," Earnhardt beamed during the afternoon news conference that was in turn beamed to television outlets across the nation. "They got me up at 5 a.m. this morning, so I was able to test the effectiveness of the [Amp Energy] product. I'm pleased to be here in front of you now, not yawning."

After the televised question-and-answer session, Earnhardt, Hendrick and others involved in making the deal happen adjourned to an adjacent hallway to unveil the color schemes of the No. 88 cars he will run beginning next season. Although Earnhardt had worked together with Hendrick and many members of the Hendrick organization on the designs, he hadn't yet seen the cars in their completed form -- and Hendrick made Junior wait until everyone else could see them, too.

"Everything works together. The colors pop. The numbers pop. He's been like a little kid at Christmas, wanting to see them all morning," said Hendrick, who added that Earnhardt will pretty much split races down the middle next season between the mostly green-and-white Amp Energy car and the mostly blue-and-white National Guard car. "It was exciting to see him that excited about it."

Make no mistake about it. Junior is, you might say, amped about everything that is happening around him as he prepares to transition out of the No. 8 Budweiser car he has driven for Dale Earnhardt Inc. since coming onto the Cup scene as a rookie in 2000. He announced his split from DEI on May 10, and announced he would be coming on board with Hendrick five weeks later.

But Wednesday put a cap on the final threads of speculation that had been hanging over him. Now he knows for certain not only where he will be driving, but exactly what he will be driving next season -- right down to the paint schemes that he helped design.

"The paint scheme itself is very basic. It's pretty simple," Earnhardt said. "With Amp and Guard sort of sharing the responsibility of partnering the car, we had to make the scheme itself as simple as possible to tone down as many decals as we have. If you make the scheme very busy, you're going to lose everything -- and the car is just going to look like a mangled mess going around there. So it was important to make the scheme really basic, so the car could be understood better and read better."

This is the Junior that Dawn Hudson, president and CEO of Pepsi-Cola America, and Lt. Gen. Clyde A. Vaughn, director of the Army National Guard, both wanted. The new Junior. The polished Junior.

A Junior who can reach vast numbers of their target audiences.

Hudson said that Wednesday's announcement was made in Dallas largely because it was where a national convention of "1,500 strong" Pepsi bottlers were meeting. Earnhardt made an appearance at the convention earlier Wednesday, prior to the news conference, and Hudson said her employees "were overwhelmed."

She talked of her company's long relationship with Hendrick Motorsports -- Pepsi has been a sponsor of Jeff Gordon's No. 24 car for 10 years and has been a secondary sponsor for Jimmie Johnson's No. 48 for four years -- and how she intends to use innovative marketing with Earnhardt to drive sales for Mountain Dew and the Amp Energy drink.

Vaughn spoke enthusiastically of how the National Guard identifies with the way Hendrick does business and the way Earnhardt conducts himself. He said that he expects Little E to help pump up the volume at recruiting stations nationwide.

"The Guard is like a family, and we want to be on this team," he said.

Others in racing have insisted that now that he is out from under the marketing restrictions that limited him to a certain demographic with Budweiser, Earnhardt, already NASCAR's most popular driver, likely will become even bigger. More importantly, especially in Earnhardt's eyes, they seem to agree that getting into Hendrick equipment should make Earnhardt an instant contender next season for wins and possibly even his first Cup championship.

"I think you saw the size of the community that his father [Dale Earnhardt] built running the Goodwrench car, and I think the job [Junior] has done personally as an individual, following the legend, has been remarkable," said Roger Penske, owner of Penske Racing South. "Having the chance now to reach 360 degrees of the population without having to pull back because of the alcohol requirements, I think he can only become bigger.

"I think it's a great move for Rick Hendrick. I have a lot of respect for Earnhardt. I think during the last few races [before the 2007 Chase for the Nextel Cup began], I was amazed at how cool his comments were and he basically did everything he could to get in. So I see him as a real contender next year, and I think this also gives him a great chance commercially."

Three-time driving champion Darrell Waltrip was on hand Wednesday and said bluntly that he expects Earnhardt to win the Daytona 500 next year. He went on to predict that Earnhardt will win a total of six races in his first season in the No. 88 car.

"I don't see why he can't. Rick Hendrick will put him in the best equipment, and surround him with the best of the best people," Waltrip said.

When they were flying to Dallas from Concord Wednesday morning, Hendrick said he turned to Earnhardt and said: "I wish the Daytona 500 was tomorrow."

Later, Hendrick told the gathered media: "There is just so much energy at our place. We just can't wait to get it on."

While stressing also that he intends to finish up strong over the last nine races of this season while driving the No. 8 for DEI, Earnhardt added that he is extremely eager for next February to arrive, too.

"The last lap of the Homestead race will be very emotional for me," Earnhardt admitted of the 2007 season finale that will be his last one in the No. 8. But then he later added: "I'm ready to get to Rick's and start working. ... Everything over there is top-notch, from one end of their shop to the other. I'm anticipating hitting the ground running at Daytona."

No doubt his new sponsors will have him hitting the ground and running long before then.