This morning Earnhardt Jr. announced that he will be driving for Hendrick for the 2008 season. Each team can only have a total of 4 drivers, so Kyle Busch is out. Not much of a surprise here, as Kyle is somewhat of a loose cannon, and didn’t really fit in with the team standards. Earnhardt will now be teammates with some of his biggest rivals of the year, Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, and Casey Mears. This is really good news for me, as my 3 favorite drivers are now on the same team, Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, and now Earnhardt. We have yet to find out who his new sponsor will be, or what his new number will be, but doest it really matter?

Dale Earnhardt Jr. will leave Dale Earnhardt Inc. after the ’07 season is finished. DEI was started by his late father Dale Earnhardt, but after his sudden death, everything changed. Jr’s stepmother became the one in charge, and has seemed to have done poorly with the business. The sad thing, was that Earnhardt Jr. didn’t even own the rights to his own name. After a long time of struggling, he decided it was in his best interest to leave the team his Father started, and look for something better.

Now what will DEI do. They have lost their only money maker. Earnhardt Jr. can go just about anywhere he wants with no problem whatsoever. People couldn’t care less who he drives for, as long as he drives. I wonder if he will be able to keep his sponsor Budweiser after the move. Budweiser would be a fool to let him go, but I don’t know what kind of contract they have with DEI.

The most logical choice for him is Richard Childress Racing, which owns the #3; the car that his Late Father drove. Jr. and RCR have had a good relationship together, and they even supply Jr. with engines for his own Busch cars. It would be nice to see Jr in the seat behind the #3. The number hasn’t been used since the death of his Father, and Jr is the only one that could do it.

You can read more about the whole thing here.

Just when you think you have seen it all, something like this comes along. This is just plain cool.

Haas CNC Racing… The NASCAR team, owned by Gene Haas, worked with Jacobs Engineering to develop a combination rolling road/wind tunnel that uses a steel belt to run the team’s vehicles up to 180 MPH, while at the same time, gaining readings from each individual wheel. Coupled with wind tunnel technology, the system can not only get the car’s wheels spinning, but can also thrust 2.85 million cubic feet of air over the vehicle every minute. – Autoblog

I have a few questions though. If you were going to spend all that money, why wouldn’t you spend a little more to build the thing in the ground? After all they are going for realism, and cars drive on the ground. I think the photo was taken while the giant treadmill wasn’t moving, because I don’t see any straps holding the car in place that you would usually see on a dyno.

via SciFi Tech

Don’t forget to watch the Daytona 500 tomorrow. The season hasn’t even started yet, and already 5 crew chiefs have been suspended, and 5 drivers are starting out the season with negative points; because of cheating. Looks like this is going to be another action packed year.