Dale Earnhardt Jr. Unveils No. 88 as New Number; Mountain Dew and National Guard New Sponsors

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Sep 19, 2007

Dale Earnhardt Jr today announced that he would drive the No. 88 car next year for Hendrick Motorsports in the NASCAR Sprint Cup series. He revealed the new number in a press conference at Dallas at which he also revealed PepsiCo’s MountainDew, Amp energy drink and National Guard as his new sponsors. Team owner Rick Hendrick and Junior’s sister and manger, Kelley Earnhardt was also present at the press meeting.

Dale Jr. Quotes during the press conference:

“ I want to avoid any kind of comparison between team owners and companies or what not. Everybody has the opportunity of having the same equipment, the same personnel, the same talent… To be honest with you I feel like I’m the best driver out there. I think every driver should have that attitude… I feel like that my crew chief needs to feel the same way and I need to feel that way about him. “

“The one thing that I can say is that Tony Eury Jr. will be my project crew chief for next year. “

“Everybody knows that Ricks has the best thing going right now, he has the best cars, he has the best track record, he has got a lot of great drivers and his equipment - everything there is, is top notch from one end of the shop to the other ..... “

“The number itself has made me a great fan of the car. Darrell and Rusty and Ricky drove the 88 from the early 80’s. Bobby Allison drove it. That car was quite a prominent car in that time, in that era. Dale Jarrett has had a lot of success with that number who was a great friend of mine and a guy that I’d have stretched quite a bit and I feel like that he’d be very happy and proud of this. So I like that the fact that the number has some history that makes me very proud to have it. I’m very excited about it. ”

“I was really trying to be the best I could, be good to my fans because that was very important to them. That was one of the more popular questions, will it have an 8 in it. What’s the number? What’s the number? I think now they can be twice as happy about the situation” (laughter)

“It’s gotta be sort of a relief for them and they gotta be pretty happy about it. I know that I’ve been pretty excited to make this announcement. Now that I’ve have new sponsors and a different number as well and so this is a great great day for me.”