Dale Jr said on Friday that his current Nationwide Series team is in the position to field a cup ride as soon as 2009.  However, only if and when the right sponsorship and driver opportunity occurs.

When asked if he would consider Martin Truex Jr to be a driver of a JRM Sprint Cup Series Car, he responded, “Why would he want to come drive for me? He’s in good stuff now and he’s going to have great opportunities from other people. And I would never do that to him.”

“For the first year coming out of the box, man we’ll struggle like hell. Come on, man. He’s going to have deals offered to him by these great companies around here and from DEI. I’ll be at the bottom of that list, right there with Haas [CNC Racing] and a couple of other people. I don’t know with Tony [Stewart] if he goes [to Haas CNC], he might be able to talk Martin into it. But I don’t know, man. I mean no way would I even do that to Martin, even if he wanted to.”

Earnhardt doesn’t seem to think that costs to fund the team would be any higher than they are for the Nationwide Series.

“I used to say ‘No way, no way,’” Earnhardt Jr. said. “But it’s almost as expensive to run in the Nationwide Series. And they’re going to bring a [car of tomorrow] in and we won’t be able to race in the Nationwide Series with [it] probably. That’ll just be too expensive to switch all that over.”

“And the COT program is going to be too expensive for me to justify creating a whole new program with COT stuff, so I’d just as soon go into the Cup Series or get out of the Nationwide Series altogether,” he said.

If indeed he does  decide to field a part-time or full-time ride in the Sprint Cup Series, it is a near certainty that he WON’T be the one driving.

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