CONTACT: LTC Eric Durr

FOR RELEASE: Sunday, Mar 02, 2008

ON SITE: SFC Lattimer (845) 249-8929

WHO:

Recruiters from the N.Y. Army National Guard

WHAT:

Army National Guard NASCAR display

WHEN:

10 a.m. - 2 p.m., Sunday, March 2, 2008

WHERE:

Middletown Army National Guard Storefront, 365 Rte 211 East, Middletown, NY

Dale Earnhardt Jr., whose family’s name is part and parcel with the American motorsports legend, will drive the Chevrolet that the National Guard will sponsor in NASCAR’s top-level Sprint Cup series next year. Earnhardt, “Junior” to the millions who follow the sport, will drive the 88 car for Hendrick Motorsports’ new team that will have PepsiCo products Mountain Dew and AMP Energy as its other major sponsors, it was announced during a nationally televised press conference in Dallas on Sept. 19, 2007. The popularity of the Earnhardt name raises the Guard’s participation in one of America’s two most popular spectator sports, the National Football League being the other, to a new level, said Lt. Gen. Clyde Vaughn, director of the Army National Guard. NASCAR appeals to the same age group, 18-24, that is the prime recruiting group for the Guard and the other military services, Vaughn pointed out. The Army Guard has to recruit about 70,000 new people every year, he said. “If the strength of our recruiting is the same place that you run NASCAR, which it is, and if Dale Earnhardt Jr., is the most popular of all the NASCAR drivers, which he is, than you would think that would make a difference in the number of people who will follow the Guard, the Guard car, and maybe effectively think about joining our team,” Vaughn elaborated. “And that’s all we ask him to do. Dale will have an enormous, enormous impact on that effort,” Vaughn predicted. “People will look at the partnership this way: The Guard is a great way to serve. It’s a first-class organization. And I like Dale Earnhardt Jr. So does the Guard. I’m going to have to think about that.” “I think it’s important to support the military, especially now,” said Earnhardt about his new affiliation with the National Guard. Previous Guard car drivers have been Todd Bodine and Greg Biffle who finished second in the Nextel Cup Series in 2005. Casey Mears is this year’s driver. Earnhardt, 32, has won 17 Cup-level races and two NASCAR Busch Series championships. He is the son of racing legend Dale Earnhardt Sr., who was killed in a crash on the final corner of the final lap of the NASCAR season’s inaugural race, the Daytona 500, in February 2001. He is the grandson and nephew of, respectively, NASCAR pioneers Ralph Earnhardt and Morgan Shepherd. His mother’s father, Robert Gee, built NASCAR cars. Earnhardt will replace Mears as the driver for the Guard car and will add his name and pedigree to the Hendrick lineup of dominating drivers that include Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson. Earnhardt signed a five-year contract with Hendrick Motorsports, announced in June 2007. His new car number is no accident. He has driven the No. 8 Chevrolet since he entered the Cup Series in 1999. His grandfather raced with that number, as well as 88, and Dale Sr., drove the 8 car early in his career. Earnhardt family politics, however, precluded Junior from bringing the famed single-digit number to the Hendrick team. For more information about the New York National Guard, visit our web site at http://dmna.ny.gov. More information about Dale Earnhardt Jr. and his Guard Car Chevrolet #88 can be found at http://www.dalejr.com.