Last Thursday on “The Morning Drive” on SIRIUS NASCAR Radio, hosts David Poole and Pat Patterson spoke with Kelley Earnhardt Elledge, Vice President and General Manager of JR Motorsports, about her brother Dale Jr.’s new deal with Hendrick Motorsports.

Host, David Poole: “Did you get the same sense that everybody else did that Junior looked like a different person [at the news conference]?”

Earnhardt Elledge: “I did. I haven’t seen just so much color and joy and smiles and whatnot from him in quite some time. The last press conference was really emotional and his face was so down. He’s been down prior to that just with the decisions that had been on his mind. Even up until yesterday we had decisions to make over the last five weeks talking with the various car owners and having to make one decision out of a great group of people was a difficult one as well. It was great to have the press conference yesterday and get that information out to the public and to the media and to everybody and now we’re set forth on the next set of questions which is sponsors and paint schemes and car numbers and all those good things. But that will be the fun stuff and I think we can smile all the way through that.”

On the possibility of keeping the #8:

Poole: “We asked Junior yesterday what number he would like and he said he’d like to be the #8, which is the first time he’s said that out loud. You’ve got a lot of that kind of stuff to work through, the sponsorship issues. Do you think that that’s possible? Where are you headed in that direction?”

Earnhardt Elledge: “Well, I think it’s possible. It’s a question that we haven’t asked DEI. We obviously wanted to get yesterday’s announcement out and then work on all that. In this sport everybody’s looking for a deal that will help make their program successful and if Kyle [Busch] is talking to them and some of his sponsors or the car number there or he’s interested in doing that we can have those conversations. And the #8 is an Earnhardt number. It was my grandfather’s number. Kerry has drove it. There’s just those certain numbers that are synonymous with your family. It would be great if that number could continue or maybe we’ll have to go with some derivative of that number. Who knows? It would be nice to keep it consistent. It’s a conversation that we’re definitely going to have and ask. If I was on DEI’s side I would want something in it for me. I think it’s more possible than it ever has been just because I know in our negotiations in the last months at DEI before we made our announcement that we were leaving there’s a different direction there now. With Max [Siegal] on board and the things that he’s bringing to the table we saw some change there. So I would say it’s a possibility. If you were to ask me that six months ago I probably said, ‘No, we’re not even going to ask the question.’ I think there’s a possibility.”

On her and Dale Jr.’s relationship with Teresa Earnhardt after the split with DEI:

Poole: “Is it possible now once you and Dale Jr. and Teresa are not trying to do business together that it will be easier for you all to be a family?”

Earnhardt Elledge: “It probably certainly will. We’re more relaxed around each other. We spent a weekend or so ago together for Taylor’s graduation and it was great. We had a great time. I think that it can be. It’s certainly a lot more relaxed now that we’re not mixing it all up.”

On the possibility of Budweiser remaining Dale Jr.’s sponsor: Earnhardt Elledge: “We have the complexities of going into a situation where [Hendrick Motorsports] has sponsors and commitments to them through certain years. We have a personal service agreement with Budweiser through 2008, just on the personal side without the connection to the sponsorship. They’ve been a great partner. They’ve helped build Dale’s brand through the years and we have definitely set up time to talk to them about what the possibilities are. I don’t know if it can be a full red Budweiser car like we’re used to seeing just because we have the complexity of other people involved on Rick’s side. And from their standpoint, they may want to keep the consistency of that if there’s an opportunity for them to go with another driver that can keep the consistency that they’re used to and if they can find someone who is young and can be as marketable as Dale has been. That may be something they want to look at. We haven’t had those discussions because, again, we wanted to get the team thing out there.”

On Dale Jr.’s fans and what the switch to Hendrick Motorsports means for them:

Earnhardt Elledge: “To the fans that are listening, if they could just bear with us. There’s been a lot of great support that I’ve been reading on the Internet and whatnot but there’s been some of those folks out there, too, that are just not sure they can make the adjustment. I’d just like to say to them, give it time and let it all sink in and see what the whole picture looks like and make their decisions. We’ve got time until 2008 for them to decide if they want to jump on or off the bandwagon. We appreciate them all.”

“The Morning Drive” airs every weekday (7 – 11 am ET) exclusively on SIRIUS NASCAR Radio, channel 128.