Earnhardt, Hendrick no longer rivals

Earnhardt Jr made the announcement today during a press conference at the JR Motorsports headquarters in Mooresville, North Carolina, where after a short speech to the media he introduced his new boss.

"We spoke with many teams, but one stood above the rest and it became apparent to me this is the man I wanted to drive for," said an emotional Earnhardt. "I've known him since childhood, he competes with integrity, and most importantly, he wins races.

"I feel like this decision will give me that opportunity and hopefully I can give my fans what they expect and deserve and have a whole lot of fun along the way. An so today it is with great honor to introduce my new boss for 2008, Mr Rick Hendrick."

Hendrick had denied any chance of Earnhardt Jr joining his team last month, saying there was no room for him. However, negotiations for a renewal of Kyle Busch's contract didn't come to fruition and he has been released to drive for another team from next year.

Busch's contract was originally due to expire at the end of 2008.

"Kyle Busch and I had had been negotiating an extension on his contract since the end of last year," Hendrick said. "Those conversations were moving along, and it became pretty obvious to me that other people were talking to Kyle at the time.

"We started talking around the Charlotte race, trying to get things finished up, and in those conversations it became pretty obvious to both of us that maybe a fresh start might be good for both of us.

"He had unbelievable opportunities. We decided that it would be good for him to pursue those and me to be able to pursue this opportunity with Junior."

Ironically, Earnhardt Jr drove Kyle Busch's car during the Nextel Cup race at Texas earlier this year.

Busch left the track before the race was over while his car was being repaired. The car was ready to rejoin the race later, but given Busch's absence, Earnhardt was asked if he would like to drive it to the finish as he was already out of the race.

It is not clear yet whether or not Earnhardt will drive the No. 5 car and who will be his sponsor. Both Hendrick and Earnhardt said these issues will be sorted at a later stage, although Earnhardt said he would like to keep driving the No. 8, which is owned by his current team DEI.

For most NASCAR fans, today's announcement means that two of the biggest rival names for many years will now join to work together. It also means that Earnhardt will team up with his father's biggest rival in the final years of his career, four-time Nextel Cup champion Jeff Gordon.

"I've never really looked at Hendrick Motorsports as our arch-rival or our nemesis," Earnhardt said. "We've competed against them and they were one of the best competitors over the years. They've set the mark at least for the Chevrolet teams.

"Jeff has always been a real good friend of mine. He and my dad were business partners on several thing, dad helped him a lot coming into the sport, so Jeff has always tried over the last six years to express to me that he is sort of repaying that favour back to my father by helping me in a lot of ways, a lot of things behind the scenes that a lot of people don't know about."

Talking about another of his future teammates, reigning Cup champion Jimmie Johnson, Earnhardt said: "I helped Jimmie get in the sport, although I know he won't give me that credit.

"We've evolved into being really good friends, so I'm really looking forward to it. Those guys seem really excited about it, and we've all talked about it and we're pretty pumped up about being teammates next year."

Hendrick has now the top three names in NASCAR driving for his team and will boost even further the popularity of his team. He believes signing Earnhardt will only make his team stronger rather than creating any possible conflicts between his stars.

"They're going to race each other," Hendrick said. "We've seen it with our cars this year when you see Jeff and Jimmie at Martinsville and you hold your breath thinking they don't wreck each other. I think when you have multi-car teams, my job is to get the best talent out there.

"I want to protect the brand, I want to protect Junior's image and who he is, but I want to give him the best opportunity, and he's going to have to beat those guys anyway. They're going to have to beat him anyway no matter if he is with our team or somebody else."

Earnhardt stated during the press conference that he would receive support from Hendrick for his own team JR Motorsports, which currently competes in the Busch Series and other development categories.

He also said that his focus for the rest of the year would remain on challenging for the Nextel Cup with his current team.

"I want to work really, really hard to give myself and Tony [Eury] Jr and my team as opportunity to make the Chase and challenge for the championship this season. I think that we're a good enough team to do that."