Junior gets it right

New deal means more money, but winning is what matters

DALLAS -- Of all the things said Wednesday as Dale Earnhardt Jr. revealed his new car number, sponsors and paint schemes, it was the driver himself who hit what should be the day's lasting message exactly right.

After the formalities -- he'll drive the No. 88 Chevrolet at Hendrick Motorsports next year, with Amp Energy drink and Mountain Dew as the primary sponsor for 20 Cup races and the National Guard for 16 races -- Earnhardt Jr. was asked why he thought his fans seemed to care so passionately about those kinds of details.

"I don't really understand that," he said, "and I don't really try. I just try to do my job on the track."

Ultimately, that's going to be the only thing that really matters.

Business is business, and there will be a lot written and said about that aspect of what could be the most lucrative deal in NASCAR history.

Educated guesses range upwards of $25 million a year for sponsorship packages for the sport's most popular driver. Millions more are on the line in merchandising, so much so that a cable home shopping network carried Wednesday's news conference live.

The souvenir shop at JR Motorsports in Mooresville, N.C., stocked up overnight on an early batch of shirts and caps, and began selling them as soon as the announcement came down. You can order your die-cast collectibles of the green-and-white and blue-and-white cars now, but don't expect delivery until at least the holiday season.

All that is fine and dandy.

But the truth is Skeeter's Septic Tank Service could sponsor Earnhardt Jr. and his fans would buy shirts and hats with that on them.

Since Earnhardt Jr. decided to leave Dale Earnhardt Inc. and longtime sponsor Budweiser, the only real questions were which team and which companies were going to win the honor of paying him scads of money, and what new number would replace his No. 8 as the sport's marketing icon.

What remains to be seen is the part of the equation that will decide whether all this is just much ado about marketing. The ultimate measure of Earnhardt Jr.'s success won't be how many replica cars he sells. What matters is whether he can win races and contend for championships.

He is selling souvenirs by the boatload now. He didn't need to change teams to do that. What he hasn't done since May of last season is win a race, and for the second time in three years he's not in the Chase for the Nextel Cup.

He's moving because he thinks the best chance to improve his results on the track is to be with Hendrick Motorsports, and he knows if he doesn't have success there, the backlash from such a failure will be brutal. What makes Earnhardt Jr. so interesting is he not only understands that, he completely embraces that challenge.

Wednesday was a big day for him.

He got up in North Carolina around 5 a.m. to fly to Dallas, joking that this gave him an opportunity to gauge how well the Amp Energy drink works.

He got a big welcome from 1,500 or so Pepsi bottlers gathered for a meeting that was the reason this dog and pony show was held in Dallas, then met the media and saw, for the first time not on paper or a computer screen, what the cars he helped design looked like.

Through all that, he was all smiles. Earnhardt Jr. was darn near giddy when he got to unveil the cars, about which team owner Rick Hendrick said his new driver was a "nitpicker."

Earnhardt Jr. clearly stated he wants to focus on finishing strong as he closes out the year at DEI. He said he knows the season's final day at Homestead-Miami Speedway will be emotional as he leaves some things behind that have meant a great deal to him in his career.

But the only time he set his jaw and really looked serious all day came when he looked forward to what's next for him on the track -- and not necessarily at all the sport's cash registers he'll be ringing.

"I can't wait to get to work," he said. "I can't wait to show everybody at Rick's place how dedicated I am. I really can't wait to get over there and prove myself."