Hendrick flirtation brought Junior to the realization

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- They said it didn't mean a thing.

But then, don't they always say that at the beginning of a friendly but flirtatious relationship?

When an angry Kyle Busch stormed off and left the crewmates of his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports team hanging toward the end of the Samsung 500 at Texas Motor Speedway earlier this year, one of the Hendrick team members sought out good friend Dale Earnhardt Jr. and asked him to pilot the car for the final nine laps. Already knocked out of the race in his current No. 8 Chevrolet, Earnhardt readily agreed -- then insisted afterward that it meant nothing.

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Well, maybe it didn't seem so at the time even to the key players. But whatever spark was ignited that day appears to have developed into a full-time romance with the legs to go a long, long way.

As Tuesday progressed, it became more and more apparent Earnhardt was headed to drive for Hendrick Motorsports in 2008 and beyond -- likely taking Busch's place on a star-studded roster of drivers that currently comprises the best race operation in the business. Earnhardt has scheduled an 11 a.m. ET news conference Wednesday at his JR Motorsports shop in Mooresville, N.C., where he is expected to make it official.

Just think of the possibilities. Team owner Rick Hendrick no doubt already has had some mighty fine dreams about them.

Together on one Nextel Cup team: Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Earnhardt and, yes, the suddenly solid and no longer forgotten Casey Mears.

The odd man out is Busch, a talented driver but petulant young man who learned the hard way that sometimes saying and doing the right things in Nextel Cup today are as much or more important than driving faster than the rest of the field -- especially when said driver lacks the patience to turn fast laps into victories without angering all those around him.

Hendrick is where many said Junior would end up from the start. On May 10, when Earnhardt announced he was leaving Dale Earnhardt Inc. and essentially becoming the most high-profile free agent in his sport's history, former driver and current television analyst Darrell Waltrip predicted that Hendrick would be the ultimate match for the free bird.

"If I was in Junior's shoes, there are two owners I would be very interested in driving for: Rick Hendrick and Richard Childress," Waltrip said at the time. "Childress makes sense because his dad drove for him -- but maybe it doesn't make sense if you think about the big picture." (Continued)