Grapevine: Earnhardt Jr to run father's colours

Earnhardt Sr will be inducted in the International Motorsports Hall-of-Fame at the super speedway on Thursday evening, having taken 10 of his 76 career victories at the track.

Earnhardt Jr is second in all-time Nextel Cup victories at Talladega with five, including a record four-in-a-row between October 2001 and April 2003.

The paint scheme mimics Earnhardt Sr's famous number 3 design, with Earnhardt Jr's usual red number 8 car being predominantly black with white lettering and silver and red stripes.

"I was very excited when I saw the car," Earnhardt Jr said. "I think the car looks good, and I think it's a cool way to honour my dad.  It's going to be a lot of fun to be behind the wheel of that car, and sort of see the reaction that, I don't know, I guess more or less the reaction it gets from the other drivers on the racetrack."

Earnhardt Sr was known as The Intimidator for his aggressive attitude when coming up behind other cars.

"Hopefully I can get a little by more help on draft than we've been getting in the last couple of races on the plate tracks," Earnhardt Jr added. "It's going to be neat.  I think the fans will enjoy it.  I hope the fans appreciate it.  I hope, you know, everybody at NASCAR appreciates it because it's a pretty cool deal for DEI.

"Everybody always said he could do a lot of things with a race car a lot of other people couldn't a lot of other drivers couldn't.  He'd take pride in those things personally.  Never would get out and jump up and down and brag about it.  But, you know, when it was all said and done and over with and everybody went only home, he would take pride in doing those things."

All other DEI cars this weekend will pay homage to the paint scheme, with Martin Truex Jr and Paul Menard running the livery.

Fans are asked to participate from the grandstands, or wherever they are watching the race, by raising three fingers in the air on Lap 3 of Saturday's Busch Series race, the actual day of Earnhardt Sr's birthday.