Submitted from Freshrubber.com

With all the talk about Dale Earnhardt Jr. leaving his No. 8 behind when he departs Dale Earnhardt Inc. for Hendrick Motorsports next year, some believe the drivers — not the teams — should have the option of keeping a number throughout their careers.

In the current system, NASCAR owns all the numbers and leases them to the teams.

Earnhardt and his representatives tried to make a deal with DEI to allow him to take his number to Hendrick. But the negotiations ended this week with no agreement, leaving Junior to ponder other numbers, perhaps in the 80s.

Earnhardt said Saturday he hadn’t held out much hope in the negotiations with stepmother Teresa Earnhardt, owner of the team founded by his late father.

“I knew that this was the way it was going to be,” he stated on the Web site of NASCAR Scene. “I just didn’t have the guts to tell my fans because they were holding out and hoping it would work out. I just didn’t have the guts to tell them that it was a waste of time hoping that it would happen. I had already been working in this other direction and got some pretty good ideas. We’re going to look at every one and see which one we like the best.”