Since Pontiac parted ways with NASCAR a few years ago, it doesn’t look like we’ll have a chance to see a Pontiac G8 run in the Sprint Cup any time soon. How about the next best thing….Dale Earnhardt Junior racing a Holden Commodore in December 2008.
According to Wheels Mag, Dale Jr. will make his Australian racing debut at Sydney’s Oran Park behind the wheel of a Holden Commodore V8 in the junior feeder category in the Fujitsu V8 Supercar Series.
Scott Loadsman, Fujitsu V8 Series team boss, confirmed the purchase of another car for his team. The team just purchased a Holden Commodore, nicknamed ‘Gidget’ from Paul Morris Motorsport. Series leader, Steve Owen will drive ‘Gidget’ and will hand over the keys to his previous car to Dale Jr. Coincidentally, the Holden Commodore that Jr will be driving is nicknamed ‘Earnhardt’.
“I know that Dale Earnhardt Jr. wanted to drive in the last race and Paul Morris is organizing for him to come out,” said Loadsman. “That’s confirmed. “We’ve already got the car from Morris, we got the sister car to ‘Earnhardt’… we bought ‘Gidget’. So he’s going to drive in the last race out there so he’ll probably drive that [Earnhardt] car.”
Dale Jr. first visited Australia at the 2007 V8 Grand Finale at Phillip Island during his end-of-season holiday as a guest of former V8 champ Marcos Ambrose. Morris gave Earnhardt a test in a V8 Holden Commodore car at his facility on the Gold Coast, and Earnhardt has since remained in contact with the V8 driver. With the final NASCAR Sprint Cup race being held on November 16 at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Earnhardt will be able to fly to Australia in time for Oran Park on December 4- 7.
[Source: Wheels Mag]
