By Liz Clarke
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, June 13, 2007

After a five-week courtship by stock-car racing's elite teams, Dale Earnhardt Jr. is expected to announce today that he'll join NASCAR powerhouse Hendrick Motorsports, which has won six of the last 12 championships, in hopes of claiming a title of his own.

Earnhardt Jr. will hold a news conference at his Mooresville, N.C., race shop. His spokesman, Mike Davis, confirmed yesterday that it was to announce the driver's plans for the 2008 season and beyond, and NASCAR insiders pointed to Hendrick Motorsports -- which had appeared out of the mix, already at the sport's ceiling of four teams -- as Earnhardt's choice.

The signing will pair NASCAR's most popular driver with its most dominant team -- one that already includes four-time champion Jeff Gordon, who appears en route to a fifth title this season, and defending champion Jimmie Johnson. And it will further distance team owner Rick Hendrick, 57, who built his fortune on one of the nation's largest car dealerships, from his rivals in the sport.

"That would make him the George Steinbrenner of racing," said NASCAR team owner Felix Sabates, a longtime friend. "I wish it was me."

It's unclear how Hendrick will make room for Earnhardt Jr., 32, but several sources close to the situation said that he'll likely part ways with Kyle Busch, the team's youngest and most volatile driver. Busch, 22, is clearly gifted, fast and fearless. But he has earned little respect among his peers, who say he consistently drives over his head. And unlike his teammate Casey Mears, who has won just one major NASCAR race to Busch's four, Busch has embarrassed Hendrick Motorsports more than once this season.

After winning the March race at Bristol Motor Speedway in which NASCAR unveiled its "Car of Tomorrow," Busch blurted out on national TV that the racecar "sucks."

After crashing into Earnhardt Jr. during the April race at Texas Motor Speedway, Busch stalked away from the track without telling anyone. Meantime, his crew frantically made repairs only to find it had no driver to complete the race. So Earnhardt Jr. was recruited to fill in -- a highly unorthodox move, but one that gained Busch's team three extra points.

Busch's crew chief Alan Gustafson called it "a very sportsmanlike gesture," adding, "It says a lot about Dale and the kind of person he is."

No prospective signing in NASCAR history has generated as much publicity as that of Earnhardt Jr., who announced last month that he was leaving the team founded by his late father, seven-time champion Dale Earnhardt, because of differences with his stepmother, Teresa Earnhardt, who inherited 100 percent of the operation. A two-time champion in NASCAR's developmental Grand National series, Earnhardt Jr. has not finished better than third in the elite Nextel Cup ranks after Teresa Earnhardt assumed the company's reins. After she rebuffed his request for a majority stake in the business, valued by Forbes magazine at more than $57 million, Earnhardt announced he would take his racing potential and famous name elsewhere.

He made clear from the outset that he preferred to continue racing Chevrolets and that his sole ambition was to join a championship-caliber team. That immediately put Joe Gibbs Racing, Richard Childress Racing and Hendrick Motorsports in play, with 15 titles among them. But each scenario involved a hurdle.

For personal reasons, J.D. Gibbs said his family's team couldn't go forward if Budweiser continued as Earnhardt Jr.'s primary sponsor. Childress, with whom Earnhardt Sr. won six of his seven championships, had a potential conflict with an existing sponsor, Jack Daniel's. But Hendrick's complication appeared the least negotiable. With four drivers under contract, he told the Associated Press, "There's no room at the inn."

It's unclear whether Budweiser will follow Earnhardt Jr. If so, it would mark a reunion of sorts. Budweiser sponsored Hendrick's No. 25 Chevrolet in the mid-1990s. Many sports-marketing executives believe Earnhardt would be better served by a sponsor with a broader demographic. His fan base skews fairly young, and being sponsored by a brand of beer crimps his ability to market his personal "brand" directly to the under-21 set.