Earnhardt embarks on first season with Hendrick race team

CONCORD, N.C. — Dale Earnhardt Jr. feels like a first-year driver again.

NASCAR’s most popular driver said he has the same feeling this year like he did in 2000 when was a Cup rookie.

But unlike when he was rookie, Earnhardt is embarking on perhaps his biggest challenge. He’s making the move over from his father’s company, Dale Earnhardt Inc., to the juggernaut Hendrick Motorsports.

“I’m enjoying everything. This has given me renewed excitement for my career,” Earnhardt said Wednesday during the Sprint Cup media tour.

Earnhardt’s enthusiasm about his new team was evidenced in his voice during his media session and in his actions so far in the preseason. Two weeks ago, he showed up at a Daytona to watch his teammates Jeff Gordon and Casey Mears drive in a test session he wasn’t participating in.

He also put away his blue jeans and untucked shirts he normally wears and replaced them, at least for a day, with the Hendrick trademark Cutter & Buck shirts and dress pants.

Earnhardt also did a photo shoot for his new sponsor, AMP Energy drink, by sitting on a camel, which drew laughs from his teammates and from the audience when it was shown on the video screen.

“It was actually kind of fun. You would be surprised,” Earnhardt said with a smile.

Gordon said the time and energy Earnhardt has put in with the new team has made an impression on him.

“I think a lot of people thought this was going to be hard and he wouldn’t fit in with the Hendrick type of mentality,” Gordon said. “But he has come in and fit right in. He just wants to be part of the team and that is what you want from any teammate who comes in. He just wants to blend into the organization and not be an outsider.”

His teammates also aren’t worried Earnhardt, who has the sport’s biggest fan base, is trying to steal the spotlight away from a team which boasts Gordon and two-time defending Cup champion Jimmie Johnson.

“He has a huge fan base and we all know that and accept it,” Johnson said.

Earnhardt said there is still some things he has to get used to with Hendrick, such as debriefing sessions and getting a chance to work with Gordon, a four-time Cup champion who had many battles with Earnhardt Jr. and his father.

“I thought me and Jeff would always be competitors,” Earnhardt said. “I’m happy to have the opportunity to work with him, but it’s strange. But this is all a little strange.“

Earnhardt said he doesn’t think much about not being with DEI and expressed no bitterness toward the company and the way the things happened during his final year there. He said he still talks to former teammate Martin Truex Jr. every night.

His former team, however, didn’t look the same during an earlier stop in the day. There are no photos of him hanging or trophies he won during his more than a decade with the team in which he won 17 Cup races and two Busch Series titles.

That’s different from Hendrick, where photos of trophies from all drivers who raced for the team are shown.

Still, Earnhardt said that didn’t bother him.

“I don’t think there is any animosity or I should insinuate they don’t want to have anything to do with me,” he said. “And if it is, it don’t matter to me because it just don’t matter.

“I didn’t want to be there anymore regardless of where I was going to go. It’s just unfortunate, but it’s part of the process of where I am now.”