Dale Earnhardt Jr. has signed an endorsement deal with Sony Electronics, but he still isn't saying what role longtime sponsor Budweiser will have with him when he joins Hendrick Motorsports next season.

"I'm a big electronics fan. I'm a big computer guy. It's products I can dig," Earnhardt said Thursday at an Oakville, Calif., winery in the heart of California's Napa Valley.

He will be competing on Sunday in the NASCAR Nextel Cup Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Infineon Raceway in nearby Sonoma.

His deal with Sony is a personal services contract that gives the company use of his name, likeness and voice for promotions. He has a similar deal with Budweiser that will continue next year, regardless of what's on his car.

Budweiser has been Earnhardt's primary sponsor since 1999, and the beer manufacturer wants to continue its relationship with him at Hendrick. But car owner Rick Hendrick isn't actively pursuing new sponsors, and it's possible Bud could get shut out.

Earnhardt also said a possible endorsement deal with sporting goods manufacturer Adidas was "on the wish list."

Earnhardt, who convinced his sister to loan him the money to buy a computer when he was a teenager, said his father never believed the Internet would be a success.

"That's one place he was wrong and I was right. I took a lot of typing classes in high school," he said.

Neither Earnhardt nor Stuart Redsun, Sony's vice president of corporate marketing, would discuss the financial arrangement or the length of the deal.

Earnhardt said he got a new digital camera out of the deal.

"The cash is great, but the product is good, too," he said.

ROCKINGHAM TRACK WILL BE AUCTIONED: Speedway Motorsports Inc., which owns North Carolina Motor Speedway in Rockingham, aka "The Rock," says the 42-year-old track is no longer profitable and will be sold at auction.

"We regret we have to make this decision, but we really have no other choice," read a June 13 letter from H.A. "Humpy" Wheeler, president and general manager of Lowe's Motor Speedway, also owned by Speedway Motorsports. "We have been unable to sell it, and track rentals are simply not enough to keep the facility running."

Wheeler's letter went to Rockingham mayor Gene McLaurin, who said the community has been concerned about the track's fate since it lost its Nextel Cup race in 2004. That was the year Speedway Motorsports bought the track, then moved the Cup race to Texas Motor Speedway. The 1.017-mile oval has been used for car testing and for special events and movies.

A fall auction date is anticipated.

DARLINGTON BUSY: For Darlington Raceway president Chris Browning, about the only thing better than seeing Nextel Cup cars and NASCAR haulers at the South Carolina track is watching cranes and construction trucks work on the superspeedway.

Browning has seen a small construction yard go up alongside NASCAR's oldest superspeedway as it begins $10 million worth of projects that include repaving the surface and adding a third access tunnel to the infield.

"I think it's great," Browning said. "It means a lot for our future."

Work started this week with crews removing barrier walls. Next comes construction of the access tunnel between turns three and four. In August, repaving will begin. Browning said workers will mill off about 3 inches of the track, replacing it with new asphalt -- and guaranteeing a much slicker surface when the Cup series returns for its fourth-straight Mother's Day weekend race.