It’s Separation Sunday for Earnhardt and No. 8 Chevy

HOMESTEAD, Fla. -- As Jimmie Johnson tries to win NASCAR’s biggest prize for the second consecutive year, stock car racing’s biggest star -- and his legion of fans -- say goodbye to an American icon.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. will drive his fire-engine red No. 8 Budweiser Chevrolet for the last time today in the Ford 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway, the finale to the Nextel Cup Series’ long 36-race season.

It’s a day that will be filled with sadness and optimism, Earnhardt said.

The sport’s most popular driver, Earnhardt, 33, is leaving the family team started by his late father to join the powerhouse team of Hendrick Motorsports next season. There he will drive a No. 88 Chevy with mainly green and blue paint schemes.

His new teammates will include Johnson, who starts today’s race with a comfortable 86-point lead in the Chase for the Cup championship playoff over fellow Hendrick driver Jeff Gordon.

Gordon is a four-time champion whose only hope of winning a fifth title requires that Johnson’s No. 48 Chevrolet have major problems today.

But Johnson has won four consecutive races and shown no sign of faltering here on the 1.5-mile oval with high-banked corners.

He won the pole position for the race, and Gordon qualified 11th in the 43-car field. Johnson was the fastest in final practice Saturday.

Earnhardt, too, badly wants to win his first championship, which is a key reason why he’s leaving Dale Earnhardt Inc. for Hendrick.

He also has a frosty relationship with his stepmother, Teresa Earnhardt, who inherited the DEI race team after the elder Earnhardt -- a NASCAR legend with seven championships -- was killed in a crash at the Daytona 500 in 2001.

When “Junior” and the team couldn’t reach terms on a new contract, Earnhardt signed with Hendrick. DEI will keep racing the No. 8 but with a different sponsor; Budweiser is moving to Kasey Kahne’s car at Gillett Evernham Motorsports.

In Earnhardt’s eight years in the Cup series, he has collected 17 wins and become by far the sport’s most popular figure.

In turn, fan merchandise that displays his car and its white No. 8 logo have become ubiquitous across the nation.

Now, both will become history.

After finishing practice Friday, Earnhardt said “I didn’t feel weird about the car” and driving it for the last time. But he said he would miss the Chevrolet and his DEI crew.

“The hardest part of this weekend is just knowing that when I walk into the garage for my first practice in Daytona” -- that is, next year’s season opener at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway -- “that most of the faces won’t be in that stall with me,” he said. “I feel like they’re my brothers and we really got along great.”

Indeed, Earnhardt said leaving DEI is what touches him most, because it’s the team where he once expected father and son to win more championships together.

“I will be sad for my father that things aren’t different,” he said. “I’m sad for him, not for me, not for anybody else.

“He was such a great person, and his visions were great and worthy and should be realized, and that will be a shame,” Earnhardt said.

Asked if he thinks about what might have happened if his father were still alive, Earnhardt replied: “I try not to think about that too much.

“There are a lot of what-ifs if he was here, like what would the sport be like? What would my life be like? Where would I be living?” he said.

Then he laughed softly and continued: “What would my salary be? Who would my friends be? Who would I not be dating because he didn’t like her?

“He had a lot of control and you let him, because he was right. I miss that.”

But after today’s race, Earnhardt says he’s ready to work for his new team owner, Rick Hendrick, together with his current crew chief and cousin, Tony Eury Jr.

“I got some great support from Rick whenever I need it, and that’s going to help a lot, to get from one place to another,” Earnhardt said.

“I’m very anxious and nervous about the challenges I face going over to Rick’s . . . and trying to be an asset to that company,” he said.

What will his off-season look like? “Whatever it needs to look like,” he said. “Tony Jr. is going to tell me whatever I got to do, and whatever I need to do I’m going to do it.

“If Tony Jr. says we got to work every day until January, I’ll be the first one on the sounding board, making it happen and helping him. I’m ready to get in the [new] car.”

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james.peltz@latimes.com

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Nextel Cup

Through 35 of 36 races:

*--* Driver Points Behind 1. Jimmie Johnson 6,572 -- 2. Jeff Gordon 6,486 86 3. Clint Bowyer 6,331 241 4. Kyle Busch 6,185 387 5. Tony Stewart 6,169 403 6. Matt Kenseth 6,103 469 7. Kevin Harvick 6,093 479 8. Jeff Burton 6,089 483 9. Carl Edwards 6,067 505 10. Kurt Busch 6,056 516 11. Martin Truex Jr. 6,009 563 12. Denny Hamlin 5,973 599 *--*

Today’s race: Ford 400 at Homestead, Fla., 12:45 p.m., Channel 7.