Earnhardt to drive own Busch car

The two-time Busch Series champion won the race last year, but that was driving a car prepared by Dale Earnhardt Inc, who he currently races for in the Nextel Cup.

Earnhardt Jr will replace Shane Huffman in the No.88 car, but he has said that he will only drive the car for one race as the team evaluate their driver plans for the rest of the season.

"I have always wanted to drive my own car, but I'm doing this to give us time to evaluate our options and see who we want to put in the car for the rest of the season," he said.

"Upon a mid-season evaluation of the performance of this team, we decided we needed to make a change, and right now we have a window to do that."

Earnhardt Jr has won five Busch Series races at Daytona in his career, but he pointed out that he is only stepping into the car this weekend because there was not time to find someone else to replace Huffman, who is currently 13th in the standings.

"Because of the short notice, I'm going to drive the car at Daytona," he said. "It's a big race for us.

"I will get with my people at JR Motorsport, and hopefully we will have a new driver named in the very near future."

Huffman took over the driving duties for the No.88 car last August, and since then he has scored six top-ten finishes in 28 races.