Courtesy of Nascar

Junior announces deals with PepsiCo. and The National Guard to sponsor his No. 88 Chevy at Hendrick Motorsports next season.

DALLAS -- Former champions and famous names fill the roll call of drivers who have raced the No. 88 in NASCAR's history.

This catalogue of speed includes Darrell Waltrip, Bobby Allison and Buddy Baker.

The list also features Ralph Earnhardt.

And soon it will feature his grandson, Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Car owner Rick Hendrick and Dale Earnhardt Jr. announced Wednesday that Hendrick Motorsports' new member will drive a No. 88 car sponsored by Mountain Dew AMP Energy Drink and the National Guard.

So ends a four-month guessing game that started when an unshaven and unkempt Earnhardt said that he would leave Dale Earnhardt Inc. -- his only home since moving to Cup in 1999 -- after this season.

Yet, this could be only the beginning for Earnhardt. His fan base dominates the sport -- nearly one-third of all NASCAR merchandise sold features his name, image or number -- and could grow larger.

No longer saddled by a sponsor that is an alcoholic beverage, which prevents marketing to teens, Junior Nation could become more crowded and more youthful.

"I think you could see a shift of existing younger NASCAR fans moving to Junior," said Steve Lauletta, president of Chip Ganassi Racing and a former sports marketing executive for Miller Brewing Co.

Car owner Roger Penske said of Earnhardt: "I think he can only be bigger."

Kelley Earnhardt Elledge, Earnhardt's sister and business manager, said that young fans will connect better to her brother because there will be more items available to buy.

While teenager loyalty can be fickle, the combination of Earnhardt in a Hendrick car could increase his power if he starts winning. Earnhardt remains the sport's most popular driver, although he's in the longest losing streak of his career and missed the Chase for the Nextel Cup for a second time in the past three years.

"Put some wins and championships on the resume and you'll see how much bigger he gets with this sponsor alignment," said Mark Dyer, president of Motorsports Authentics, a collectibles company that will produce many of Earnhardt's souvenir items.

Future teammate Jeff Gordon has joked that should Earnhardt win a series title, "it's over" as far as souvenir sales for other drivers.

Dawn Hudson, president and CEO of Pepsi-Cola North America, wants that domination. She looks for Earnhardt to raise the profile of her company's AMP beverage in a congested energy-drink market that features a similar Pepsi product endorsed by Gordon.

While some might perceive energy drinks as only for teenagers or college students cramming for tests, Hudson said Earnhardt, 32, will fit nicely in promoting an energy drink. Any doubts and she looks at Earnhardt's fan base.

"You don't get 25 percent of the NASCAR fans without having a broad reach," she said.

How the company will market Earnhardt has not been finalized, Hudson said, but he'll be quite visible in commercials, online and other promotions.

"They're going to spend a lot of money activating and marketing the product and the relations that they have with Dale," Earnhardt Elledge said. "I'd rather them have more marketing dollars to put behind what they do than the sponsorship aspect of it, because that's what's really important to connecting to our fans and to the consumers."

Although Earnhardt wanted to take the No. 8 with him to Hendrick Motorsports, car owner Teresa Earnhardt kept it.

That forced Earnhardt to find a new number. He and Hendrick officials considered any number with an 8 in it. He had raced the No. 81 in the Busch series and that might have been Earnhardt's number, but a clothing business is called Company 81 and there were licensing rights concerns.

The No. 28 also was considered. It has not been used this season but is assigned to Robert Yates Racing. Yates wanted to keep it but offered the 88, which is being used by the team for Ricky Rudd.

Earnhardt, who runs the No. 8 because his grandfather used that number, didn't realize that Ralph Earnhardt also raced the 88 once -- in the 1957 Virginia 500 at Martinsville Speedway for Petty Enterprises.

That made the number more appealing to Earnhardt.

"Numbers have personalities and numbers do talk," he said as he leaned against his green-and-white Mountain Dew AMP Energy car. "Numbers do kind of reach out and grab you."

This one grabbed him. Now, he'll try to grab more of the consumer market.