Dale Earnhardt Jr. said he will drive next season for Hendrick Motorsports, adding Nascar's most-popular driver to a team that has won six championships and taken 10 of 14 races this year in stock-car racing's top series.

The announcement today at Earnhardt's JR Motorsports racing shop in Mooresville, North Carolina, follows his decision last month to leave Dale Earnhardt Inc., the company founded by his late father. Financial terms of his agreement with his new team, owned by Charlotte, North Carolina-area car dealer Rick Hendrick, weren't disclosed.

``I've know him since childhood, he competes with integrity and most important he wins races,'' Earnhardt said during a televised news conference. Earnhardt's contract to drive the No. 8 Budweiser Chevrolet for Dale Earnhardt Inc. expires at year- end.

The 32-year-old Earnhardt said last month that he wanted to be part of a team that would give him a better chance of winning a championship. Charlotte-based Hendrick ranks second all-time in top series wins with 159 and has won an unprecedented four straight season titles from 1995-98.

``His track record and track performance speaks for itself,'' Earnhardt said.

Earnhardt will join four-time Nascar Nextel Cup winner Jeff Gordon and reigning champion Jimmie Johnson in the Hendrick stable. Gordon leads this season's standings.

`Just About the Best'

``Hendrick racing is just about the best that has ever been in Nascar,'' said Marc Ganis, president of SportsCorp Ltd., a Chicago-based consulting firm. All four Hendrick-owned Nextel Cup cars, including those driven by Kyle Busch and Casey Mears, have won races this year. Gordon and Johnson have four wins each.

Hendrick said that Earnhardt will replace Busch, whose contract with the team was set to expire at the end of next year. He also said that details are still being worked out on what Earnhardt's car number will be and if Anheuser-Busch Cos.' Budweiser beer will remain his sponsor.

``We haven't decided on any of that yet,'' Hendrick, 57, said during the press conference. ``The car number, the sponsor, we're going to work on. None of that is in place yet.''

Earnhardt said he plans to talk with Dale Earnhardt Inc. about driving for Hendrick in the No. 8 car. Numbers are allocated to team owners by Nascar. While the owners generally retain the rights to the numbers, they remain the property of the sanctioning body. Ganis said it's likely that Budweiser will follow Earnhardt to Hendrick.

Budweiser Sponsor

``I would be very surprised if he didn't go with Budweiser,'' Ganis said. ``Anheuser-Busch tends to retain those endorsement properties that it has equity in, whether that be a sports team or, in this case, a racer.''

Anheuser-Busch spokesman Brian Eaton didn't immediately return a call seeking comment.

Hendrick Motorsports is second in top series wins to Petty Enterprises, which has 268. Richard Petty has a record 200 of those for the company founded in 1949 by his father. Richard Petty's seven championships are a record shared with Dale Earnhardt Sr.

Hendrick's team was the second-most valuable franchise in Nascar racing last year with an estimated value of $146 million, according to Forbes magazine. Roush Racing, which has since become Roush Fenway Racing, was the most valuable at $218 million.

Earnhardt made about $7.1 million in salary and winnings and another $20 million from endorsements last season, according to Sports Illustrated. The new deal will probably give him a boost in salary and participation in sponsorship income, SportsCorp's Ganis said.

`Eight-Figure Deal'

``This is an eight-figure deal, it's highly unlikely it's beyond that,'' Ganis said. ``I don't think there's any question he's going to have a piece of the action in this deal. That's exactly why he left the former company.''

Budweiser reaped about $149 million in television exposure through its sponsorship of Earnhardt last season, the most for a car sponsor in Nascar, according to Joyce Julius & Associates Inc. The Ann Arbor, Michigan-based consultant measures the amount of airtime logos receive and assigns a value to it based on advertising rates...