Dale Earnhardt Jr. will compete in Friday nights Busch race at Daytona, driving the #88 Navy Chevy for his personally-owned team, JR Motorsports. He replaces Shane Huffman. “Upon a midseason evaluation of the performance of this race team, we decided we needed to make a change, and right now we have a window to do that, Earnhardt Jr. said. “Because of the short notice, I am going to drive the Navy car Friday night at Daytona. Its a big race for us. We are carrying a special Navy SEALs paint scheme on the car, so we want to make sure we give it a good run for the Navy and all our sponsors and employees. Earnhardt Jr. said he does not intend to drive the car beyond this weekend, although a new full-time driver has yet to be determined. I have always wanted to drive my own car, but Im doing this to give us time to evaluate our options and see who we want to put in the car for the rest of the season, Earnhardt Jr. said. I will get with my people at JR Motorsports, and hopefully we will have a new driver named in the very near future.(JR Motorsports PR)(7-3-2007)
UPDATE: Hearing Brad Keselowski could be the new driver of the #88 Chevy fielded by JR Motorsports.(7-5-2007)
UPDATE 2: Hearing that Keselowski will be in the #88 at Chicago.(7-5-2007)
UPDATE 3: Officials with JR Motorsports aren’t saying whether Shane Huffman will return to drive the team’s #88 this season. Huffman has been replaced by team owner Dale Earnhardt Jr. for this weekend’s Winn-Dixie 250 at Daytona. When Steve Crisp, director of motorsports, was asked if Huffman would return, he said he didn’t know. “We’re working on that now,” Crisp said Thursday at Daytona. “There’s a couple different things that as a company, JR Motorsports is looking at.”(SceneDaily.com)(7-5-2007)
UPDATE 4: Dale Earnhardt Jr. said Friday that he probably will put Brad Keselowski in his No. #88-Chevy Busch car for three races, starting next weekend at Chicagoland Speedway. Keselowski would race at Chicago, Gateway and O’Reilly Raceway Park. Earnhardt said he is looking to put a road-racing specialist in the JR Motorsports entry for the inaugural road course event at Montreal.(ESPN.com)(7-6-2007)
UDPATE 5: Brad Keselowski is listed as the driver of the #88 on the Chicago Entry list.(7-9-2007)
UPDATE 6: Keselowski will drive Earnhardt’s Busch car the next three weekends, beginning Saturday at Chicagoland. “We’ll re-evaluate where we are after three races,” said Keselowski, who is staying at Earnhardt’s guest house.(ESPN.com)(7-10-2007)
