Merger would not have changed Junior's mind

Dale Earnhardt Jr. was asked if he knew the merger between Dale Earnhardt Inc. and Ginn Racing was going to happen, would it have changed his mind about leaving the team his father founded.
By combining the two teams' resources, the new one will be a four-car operation and have twice the space and equipment available to run those teams. Before the merger, DEI was a two-car operation with a third team, the No. 15 car, running a partial Cup schedule.
Earnhardt Jr. said if he knew about the merger, it wouldn't have changed his decision.
"We all forget, you know, I didn't leave because we didn't have a seven-post. I didn't leave because we didn't have 25 CNC machines," said Earnhardt Jr., driver of the No. 8 Chevrolet for DEI. "It didn't have anything to do with whether we were a three-, two- or four-car operation. There were things about the team that, in racing, you always have to progress. You can't never sit still and everybody at DEI knows that. That was just something I wanted to aid in and be a bigger part of but the things that are happening now are great for the company. I believe they're going to be good things for the company. I don't think it's a bad move but it wouldn't have changed my opinion, I don't believe."
Richard Childress, who owns a three-car team in the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series and was the owner of Dale Earnhardt's Cup team, said he expects one day Earnhardt Jr. will leave Hendrick Motorsports and return to DEI.
"I think that working with Rick (Hendrick) is going to be a lot of fun," Earnhardt Jr. said. "I think that we have anticipations of things that we want to accomplish and do. That will be a good relationship and that will be a chapter or two that we'll write together and then I'll decide whether I want to go back or do something else."
Earnhardt Jr. said he believes his relationship with DEI is still healthy, even though he has not talked to his stepmother, Teresa Earnhardt, who runs DEI. But he said he doesn't anticipate wanting to switch teams again for a long time.
"But that's just such a long ways down the road," Earnhardt Jr. said. "There's so many things that can change. The sport could be in a whole different place. Who knows what we'll be doing then."