NASCAR star Dale Earnhardt, Jr. is leaving his team at Dale Earnhardt, Inc. after the two sides were unable to work out a new contract.  DEI was created by Juniors late father and NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt. It is currently run by Earnhardt’s widow Theresa.

“Those of you who know me know that I don’t like to keep things under wraps. I’m usually pretty honest,” Earnhardt said. “After a year of intense negotiations and intense efforts on behalf of Dale Earnhardt Inc. and JR Motorsports, we decided that it’s time for us to move on and seek other opportunities for me to drive for a new team in 2008.

“We both worked extremely hard to find common ground, but as the negotiations continued, one thing became evident: we both want to get to the same place, but we both simply have different visions on how to get there.”

Junior could end up with the team owned by Richard Childress.  Earnhardt, Sr. won six of his record seven NASCAR championships while racing for Childress.  It also opens up the possibility of Junior driving his dad’s famed #3 car.  He will no longer be driving the #8 as the individual teams own the numbers. So DEI will be fielding a new car as the #8 car.

“I have a great relationship with Richard [Childress], I feel like he has really stepped up his program but I’ve got to do some soul searching on how I feel about driving the No. 3 car,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “With respect to my father, I don’t feel very comfortable with that, he built that number … but I never say never.”

I would love to see Junior in a black #3 on Sundays driving for Richard Childress.

It looks like Master P is going to be getting a new Dale Jr. onesie soon.