Upstart Ginn enters Earnhardt race

?We would stretch as hard as we could stretch to do it,? Ginn said by telephone Friday night. ?You want the best, the absolute best, and I love the idea that Dale wants to win championships. He could accomplish that here with us.

?We?re in play.?

Earnhardt is leaving Dale Earnhardt Inc. at the end of the season, and headed into Saturday night?s race at Darlington Raceway as perhaps the hottest free agent in sport history.

He said Friday that he wants to take a few weeks before opening the negotiating process, and NASCAR?s most popular driver should have his pick of teams. Three owners ? Rick Hendrick, Joe Gibbs and Richard Childress ? were quickly identified as the front-runners, and Childress indicated Friday he?ll be in the race.

?We will sit and talk, I?m sure,? said Childress, who fielded cars for six of Dale Earnhardt?s seven championships. ?I?m hoping he?s considering us.?

So is Ginn, who finds himself jockeying for position among NASCAR?s heavyweights less than a year after buying into the sport.

The Florida land developer bought a midlevel team last July and markedly improved it in just a few short months. Following an aggressive long-range plan, Ginn snagged Mark Martin and expanded the operation to three cars.

Then Martin nearly won the Daytona 500, while opening the season with the best start of his career.

He briefly led the points standings before bowing out on top. He?s running a partial schedule this season and is currently ranked 14th despite sitting out three of 10 races.

Existing drivers Sterling Marlin and Joe Nemechek have been considerably stronger this season, with Marlin as the only driver not ensured a spot in the field to qualify for the first five races of the year.

Ginn also beefed up his driver development package, where he?s tucked away 15-time motocross champion Ricky Carmichael.

?We have a five-year plan in mind and the conclusion is winning a championship,? Ginn said. ?We took a risk on Mark Martin, and that?s paid off in spades for us. We aren?t afraid to be aggressive.?

The team leases its motors from Hendrick and is perceived to be a satellite of that powerful operation. It?s gotten Ginn mentioned as an outside equation in the Earnhardt race, but the team clearly wants to be a viable option.

?He is the man in NASCAR,? Martin said. ?We would certainly like to talk to him.?

Ginn thinks his team suits Earnhardt because he runs it like a family operation and would fit much of what Junior is looking for. Earnhardt ideally would like to complement JR Motorsports, the Busch Series operation he owns, with his next employer.

Dale Earnhardt followed that model by driving for Childress while developing DEI, and Ginn thinks Junior can do it with him.

?Listening to what Dale has outlined, his Busch operation would dovetail beautifully with us,? Ginn said. ?We believe he?d be a good fit. Our DNA?s match, our cultures are alike.?

Earnhardt reiterated Friday that he?s looking for a winner.

?I could live without winning a championship, but I would have to,? he said. ?But I don?t want to. I want to win a championship and I want to win more races. I want to win on a regular basis.?

It?s why he?ll take some time away to decompress before he makes the next biggest decision in his life. He wants his next employer to be his last after six-plus seasons at his late father?s company. Junior has won 17 races at DEI, but the program has been on a slow decline since Earnhardt?s 2001 death.

Junior wanted 51 percent ownership to stay with the company, but stepmother Teresa wouldn?t turn over control. So he?s parting ways and should have no shortage of suitors.

?I would like to take a week or two to clear my mind a little bit, drink some beers and have some fun,? he said. ?I have felt about as un-normal as I possibly could the past few days. Lost a lot of sleep. So I want to relax and just clear my head and get in a good football stance to go after this new deal that we?re seeking.?

The suspense will consume the garage, which was abuzz all day Friday as he and his team did their best to get on with their final year together.

It wasn?t easy, though, as thick crowds gathered around his garage stall and team hauler to watch his every move.

?It?s sort of hard to get to the car ? I?m parked too close to the 8,? RCR driver Clint Bowyer joked. ?Man, it would be hard to focus on what you are doing with all the hoopla around him.?

Despite the chaos, Junior was able to find some peace inside his red No. 8 Chevrolet.

?I am glad to be back in a race car today, absolutely. That?s where I hide from a lot of things,? he said. ?I love race-car driving and that?s all I want to do. After the last couple of days, this is the best medicine.?