J.D. Gibbs on Jr.

From the Charlotte Observer via Macon.com

J.D. Gibbs, president of Joe Gibbs Racing, meanwhile said that his team would certainly talk to Earnhardt Jr. about possible opportunities despite the fact that his association with Budweiser would be a major complication.

Gibbs’ father, Joe, frequently speaks to Christian groups and has at least once flatly declined having a beer company as primary sponsor for one of his teams.

“Budweiser has been a great partner for the sport and does a lot,” J.D. Gibbs said. “But that would be a hard deal for us to do.”

Gibbs, however, stopped short of saying the issue over a beer sponsorship would be a “deal breaker” He said he thought Earnhardt Jr. and his sister, Kelley Elledge, “did a great job” in announcing Thursday that Earnhardt Jr. will not return to Dale Earnhardt Inc. after the 2007 season.

“I know that was hard for him,” Gibbs said. “Who wouldn’t want a chance to talk to Dale Jr.? It sounds like whatever decision they come up with would be a good one. When the time is right, we’d love to sit down with them and talk to him and see what their plans are. But right now we are just focusing on what we’re doing.”

The Gibbs team fields Chevrolets for Tony Stewart, Denny Hamlin and J.J. Yeley. NASCAR limits a single car owner to four Nextel Cup teams, but Gibbs said adding a fourth team for Earnhardt Jr. or any other driver would not be a simple thing to do.

“We’ve added cars and each time we spent a year and a half working on it,” he said. “They were still hard. That’s a hard, hard deal setting up and putting a fourth car in within six months’ time. I wouldn’t say we couldn’t do it, I’m just saying we’d have to get a sign-off from everyone in our shop.”

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