Beer ties might limit Earnhardt

Joe Gibbs Racing may not be a prime contender to land free-agent Dale Earnhardt Jr. after all, because of Earnhardt’s close ties with a beer sponsor.

“For us it would be hard” to field a car with Budweiser logos, team president J.D. Gibbs told reporters Saturday afternoon at Darlington Raceway, before rain forced postponement of the Dodge Avenger 500.

The race was rescheduled for today at 10 a.m. PDT, and will be telecast live on Channel 11.

The Gibbs family, headed by Washington Redskins Coach Joe Gibbs, is deeply evangelical and has religious objections to alcohol consumption.

Otherwise, JGR fits all the criteria to make it one of the top three contenders for Earnhardt, who announced Thursday that he would not return to Dale Earnhardt Inc. in 2008.

JGR is a Chevrolet team, and remaining loyal to the brand is high on Junior’s list. He also wants championship capability, and JGR has won the Nextel Cup season title twice with senior driver Tony Stewart, who is one of Earnhardt’s best friends.

And, although Earnhardt has said money is not a major issue for him, JGR has the wherewithal to pay him as well as the other top contenders, Richard Childress Racing and Hendrick Motorsports. Earnhardt’s annual income has been estimated at $20.1 million by Forbes.

One prime contributor to his salary is Anheuser-Busch, with its Budweiser brand, which has been pouring about $20 million a year in sponsorship into DEI. Budweiser is roundly expected to go with Earnhardt to whichever team he chooses.

Four times Saturday, J.D. Gibbs, son of the NFL coach, said accepting Budweiser as a sponsor would be “hard.” But he didn’t say it was impossible.

“They’ve been a great partner of the sport and do a lot for us, but personally that would be a hard deal for us to do,” he said.

But, asked if Budweiser would be a deal-breaker, Gibbs hedged: “I’ll just leave it at that right now. I’m not sure if that would fit for us.”

That could leave Childress and Hendrick as the two serious contenders. Longshot owners Ray Evernham and Bobby Ginn have said they’ll bid for Earnhardt, but both lack his primary prerequisite: proven championship capability.

Hendrick is already at the four-driver limit being phased in by NASCAR, but the sanctioning body has yet to enforce that rule. Team owner Jack Roush is still running five cars, and one of them, Greg Biffle’s No. 16, is losing Ameriquest sponsorship after this season. The team is seeking a new sponsor, and NASCAR hasn’t raised any objections, at least publicly.

Ginn, an Orlando, Fla., real estate developer, could factor into the picture because his new team already has Hendrick as an engine supplier. Further technical assistance could make Ginn Racing a full-fledged Hendrick satellite team.

But even with all that Hendrick support, and an open checkbook, Ginn Racing is unproven in Earnhardt terms. Ginn has infused money and vastly improved the once-mediocre team he bought last summer as MB2 Motorsports, and his general manager, Jay Frye, is considered one of the most promising young executives in auto racing.

But Ginn may be years away from its first championship. Hendrick and Childress have won six Cup season titles each.

Another possibility might be for Hendrick to farm out the contract of its junior driver, Casey Mears -- the only one of Hendrick’s four drivers who hasn’t won this year -- to Ginn. That would leave Hendrick with an open berth to add Earnhardt as a teammate to Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson and Kyle Busch.

Childress has been considered the leading contender because of his close ties to the Earnhardt family. Dale Earnhardt drove for Childress from 1984 until his death in the 2001 Daytona 500, and won six of his seven championships at RCR.

Earnhardt, should he join Childress, would be on a solid but less star-studded roster, with Kevin Harvick, Jeff Burton and Clint Bowyer.

Childress still owns the NASCAR rights to Earnhardt Sr.’s legendary No. 3. But Earnhardt Jr. last week expressed reservations about driving a No. 3 car, saying he’d have to do some “soul-searching.”

The only other teams in NASCAR that refuse alcohol sponsorships are Petty Enterprises and the occasional qualifier Morgan Shepherd. Shepherd’s reasons are religious; the Petty family follows a family tradition.

Also Saturday, NASCAR inspectors found that the rear wing on Earnhardt’s Car of Tomorrow was mounted incorrectly. The brackets used to hold it in place were confiscated.

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Ed Hinton covers auto racing for Tribune newspapers.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.