The 19-year-old driver, who has raced late model stock cars the past two years in the NASCAR Camping World Series East, has joined Rick Ware Racing, along with his father, Kerry Earnhardt.
Kerry, Dale Jr.'s older half brother, will race for his new team on April 4 at Texas Motor Speedway. The 39-year-old has 70 career starts in Nationwide, the last at Daytona in July 2008. He last competed full-time in the series in 2002, finishing 22nd in the standings.
Both father and son will drive a part-time schedules working with veteran crew chief Paul Andrews until the fall, when Clyde McCloud will take over as crew chief for Jeffrey Earnhardt. Plans call for the younger Earnhardt to run seven Nationwide events this season in preparation for a run at rookie of the year in 2010.
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PENSKE POWER: If offseason testing is any indication, Team Penske is the team to beat heading into the season-opening IndyCar Series race April 5 at St. Petersburg, Fla.
Ryan Briscoe, who won two races and finished fifth in the standings in 2008, was fastest in testing last month on the 1.5-mile oval at Homestead-Miami Speedway, while new teammate Will Power was fastest last week on the road course at Barber Motorsports Park in Alabama.
Power, an Australian, was seventh fast at Homestead then topped the test at Barber by three-tenths of a second over Dario Franchitti of Target Chip Ganassi Racing.
"I haven't spent much time with this team, so I spent the two days jelling with my engineer," Power said. "We're really working well together now. We found some good things in the car, and we found a car that suits me. We're happy and we'll be pretty confident going into St. Pete."
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HELPING HAND: It was just like old times for Robbie Loomis last Sunday at Bristol, sitting on top of the pit box and making the calls as a crew chief.
But Loomis, vice president of race operations of Richard Petty Motorsports, will be just as happy to have Kevin Buskirk, the regular crew chief for the No. 19 Dodge of Elliott Sadler, return this week at Martinsville if he has recovered from an intestinal bug that sent him home last week.
"From the beginning, when I started racing, you lived to make the calls, whether it was two tires or four tires to put your driver in a better situation to win the race," Loomis said. "From that perspective it was nice. But, at the same time, it made me realize why I got out of it.
"A crew chief has a 24-hour-a-day, seven-days-a-week job. Those guys are so focused, so committed to every little detail on the car. Fortunately for me, I had (engineer) Kevin Kidd and all the 19 car guys to lean on and help prop me up Sunday."
Loomis said the best thing about Sunday was establishing a better relationship with Sadler, who finished 20th.
"The thing that I enjoyed the most was it put me one step closer to Elliott," Loomis said. "Working a whole race with a guy like him and seeing his feedback, the way that he handled himself in the car, really encouraged me and I think that we can get a lot accomplished with Elliott before the year is out."
