Junior to push Busch off team

Dale Earnhardt Jr. will announce today that he is joining Hendrick Motorsports after this season, a move that will leave Kyle Busch in search of a new team.

The 32-year-old Earnhardt, NASCAR's most popular driver, said two months ago he would leave Dale Earnhardt Inc. after this season.

Rick Hendrick's initial reaction to Earnhardt declaring his impending free-agent status was to say there's "no room at the inn." Hendrick already fields the maximum four Cup teams, with drivers Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Busch and Casey Mears.

Busch, a 22-year-old Las Vegas native, will be the odd man out, according to a Charlotte Observer report that the Review-Journal confirmed through a source who requested anonymity because the decision had not yet been announced.

"I don't doubt it. Rick said 'There's no room at the inn,' right? The English translation is, 'Geez, I'd have to buy someone's contract out,' " Kyle's father, Tom Busch, who lives near Charlotte and is a spotter for another Cup team, told the Review-Journal. "I'm sure (Kyle) will do just fine."

Busch, who has won four times in 92 Cup races for Hendrick, will not comment on his future before Friday at Michigan International Speedway, a team spokesman told the Observer.

Earnhardt's news conference from his JR Motorsports shop near Charlotte, N.C., is scheduled for 8 a.m. today and will be broadcast live on Speed (Digital 329) television and Sirius satellite radio (Channel 128).

One source in NASCAR told the Review-Journal that Kellogg's, the sponsor of Busch's No. 5 Chevrolet, was unhappy with his reaction on national television after winning March 25 at Bristol Motor Speedway. The cereal brand, which has sponsored the No. 5 car since 1994, is rumored to be leaving the Hendrick team after this year.

Bristol was the first race for the Car of Tomorrow, a new model of Cup car that is being run at 16 of this year's 36 races and all races next year. After the race, Busch said, "I wanted to go out and win this race so I could tell everybody how terrible this thing is to drive. I can't stand to drive them. They suck."

Earnhardt is expected to be taking his Budweiser sponsorship with him. He said his priority in searching for a new team was to find the one most likely to help him win his first Cup championship. No team right now is better equipped to provide that opportunity than Hendrick.

It has won 10 of this year's 14 Cup races with Gordon and Johnson each winning four and Busch and Mears one apiece. The Hendrick team has won 159 races and six championships since it began competition in 1984.

Earnhardt has won 17 times in 269 Cup races for DEI, which was founded by his late father, Dale Earnhardt Sr. But Junior has gone 40 races since his last victory on May 6, 2006.

Busch's contract runs through the 2008 season and another anonymous source said Busch wants to be the primary driver for a team instead of ranking behind four-time series champion Gordon and reigning champion Johnson.

Busch is 10th in the Cup standings; Earnhardt is 14th.

Busch, who graduated from Durango High School, signed his first NASCAR contract with Roush Racing when he was 16 and competed in the Craftsman Truck Series until NASCAR raised the minimum age for racing in each of its three national series.

He remained with Roush through 2002, competing in a regional stock-car series. When he turned 18, he signed with Hendrick to drive in the Busch series in 2003 and finished second in the series the following year with five victories.