DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (Oct. 29, 2007) – The colors were familiar – red and white – but the address completely new Monday as Dale Earnhardt Jr. began the prelude of his transition to Hendrick Motorsports.

Earnhardt, who joins Hendrick following the 2007 season, returned along with 46 other NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series drivers to Atlanta Motor Speedway on Monday for a two-day test of NASCAR’s “new car,” which will compete fulltime in 2008.

This test – the last of seven NASCAR-sanctioned tests this season – is the first full-scale session for the new car at a 1.5-mile track, so Earnhardt was researching not only his new team, but the “new car.”

“We're just sort of driving the cars, making sure nothing scared me, making sure there are no big problems, anything like that,” he said during a lunch-break visit to Atlanta’s infield media center. “So the cars drive really good and very comfortable. One's got a seat that I've been running in for a long time. The other's got a new carbon fiber seat. We're trying that out, getting used to that, getting the bugs out of that.”

Earnhardt is driving the No. 5 Chevrolet during this week’s test. Both test cars carry a spare, red and white paint scheme that echo his current car – the No. 8 Budweiser Chevrolet of Dale Earnhardt Inc.

He announced during the summer he’ll leave DEI – where he began his series career in 2000 – for Hendrick in 2008. Other than a few laps in the No. 5 this spring at Texas Motor Speedway, where he stepped in for current driver Kyle Busch, this week’s session marks Earnhardt’s Hendrick baptism.

“I think the theory and the method that Hendrick takes in putting their geometry together and putting this front suspension – how the front suspension's assembled – makes the car steer smoother,” he said.  

“That's the way the 5 car felt at Texas. It was quite a bit different than my car at Texas. It's a little bit the same here.”

Although the car and crew members are different, the crew chief is not. Earnhardt’s longtime crew chief, Tony Eury Jr., made the Hendrick move with him, and is overseeing this week’s work.

“I’m trying to be the bridge between Hendrick Motorsports and Dale Junior,” Eury Jr. said Monday. “Because we’ve got a lot of work to do.”
 
Part of Monday’s schedule involved greeting team owner Rick Hendrick, who returned to the track less than 24 hours after one of Earnhardt’s future teammates, reigning series champion Jimmie Johnson (No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet) won Sunday’s event at Atlanta. Another future teammate, Casey Mears (No. 25 National Guard/GMAC Chevrolet), also is testing this week with his future crew chief, Alan Gustafson, currently Kyle Busch’s crew chief (Busch, who moves to Joe Gibbs Racing in ’08, also is testing with his new team this week).

“I'm excited to watch Tony, Jr. work with the new guys,” Earnhardt said. “I'm excited to see the expressions on their face; their mannerisms; their attitude about the whole thing. Working with Alan and Casey is going to be a lot of fun. Two good guys with great attitudes. Real easy to talk to. Real easy to go up to and ask questions.”

Eury, who will rejoin Earnhardt atop the pit box in ’08, said early indications point to Johnson’s cars and setups being similar to those he and Earnhardt favor.

“They’re probably the closest one to him, so that’s a good start,” Eury said. “We can feed off that.”

CREDIT: NASCAR PR 

2-Day Session Is Series’ Seventh Scheduled Test Of 2007
Atlanta Session Marks New Car’s First Full-Scale Test At 1.54-Mile Track

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (Oct. 28, 2007) – In a season filled with firsts for NASCAR’s “new car” – NASCAR’s safety-oriented, next-generation race car that will compete fulltime in 2008 – another awaits at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series teams will test at Atlanta on Monday and Tuesday, after competing in today’s Pep Boys Auto 500. It’s the series’ seventh and final NASCAR-sanctioned test of the season.

More significant: It’s the first full-scale test for the new car at a 1.5-mile track.

“It’s the first opportunity for everyone for be on that size race track at the same time at those speeds,” said NASCAR Vice President of Competition Robin Pemberton. “It’s also the first opportunity for some new combinations of drivers and crew chiefs to work together.”

This test will be the fourth this season dedicated to the new car (previous tests for the new car took place at Bristol Motor Speedway, Richmond International Raceway and Talladega Superspeedway).

Teams are phasing in the new car by running it in 16 of 36 scheduled events this year. The last of those 16 will be Nov. 11 at Phoenix International Raceway.

The Phoenix event will be the ninth race in the 2007 Chase for the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup – the battle for the series title that takes place during the season’s final 10 events. Five of those events are being run with the new car.

The new car’s last milestone test took place Sept. 10-11 at Talladega, a 2.66-mile superspeedway where restrictor plates are used on the engines. NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series teams raced there on Oct. 7. The series won’t compete with the new car on 1.5-mile tracks until next season.

Atlanta’s test sessions run from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. ET both days, weather permitting.

CREDIT: NASCAR PR