TOMORROW GOOD TO HENDRICK.

Byline: TIM HADDOCK

MOTOR SPROTS

Hendrick Motorsports has won the first four races with NASCAR's Car of Tomorrow. Probably not exactly what NASCAR wanted to see.

The Car of Tomorrow was supposed to be an equalizer, making some of the lower-tier teams more competitive with the Nextel Cup Series powerhouses like Hendrick.

Instead, Hendrick Motorsports -- or at least three of its four teams -- have dominated.

Dale Earnhardt Inc., Richard Childress Racing, Roush Fenway Racing and Evernham Motorsports have all struggled with the Car of Tomorrow.

Greg Biffle, driver of the No.16 Ford for Roush Fenway Racing, said the amount of testing Hendrick has been able to do has probably contributed to its early success with the Car of Tomorrow.

"They say that Hendricks have almost 100 days of testing in the COT car," Biffle said. "I don't know if that's true or not. I don't know if that's double what they have. I have no idea. It seems pretty far-fetched to have that many days testing in that car to date.

"I do know that they have done a tremendous amount of testing and spent a lot of time working with that car."

And it's paid off in wins and poles.

But it hasn't been easy, said Hendrick Motorsports driver Kyle Busch.

"We've got great race teams, and I'd say that it's four of probably the best 10 or 12 drivers out there," Busch said. "It's hard to beat the best drivers and the best equipment with the best teams. You just have everything all pieced together correctly."

Aside from the apparent disparity in testing, Biffle said the performance gap between teams is not smaller with the Car of Tomorrow, which was one of NASCAR's goals.

"That's the whole key to this COT car is it's going to level the playing field and put everybody on the same even keel," Biffle said. "It hasn't done that to this point."

It has, however, made some teams more competitive. Teams at Hall of Fame Racing, Haas CNC Racing and Bill Davis Racing have been producing better results. But no one has figured out how to beat Hendrick.

"And it's really hard to catch up," Biffle said. "The hardest thing about catching up is it's just like trying to catch up to somebody that's older than you in age. You're not going to get any closer because the more that they learn, the more you're learning. So you're both learning at the same acceleration, but you're behind them."

Saturday night's race at Darlington Raceway in South Carolina will be the fifth race with the Car of Tomorrow. Jimmie Johnson has two wins with the Car of Tomorrow. Jeff Gordon and Kyle Busch each have one.

"In some ways I am surprised that we've been able to win as many races as we have," Johnson said. "We've had a lot of great competition from other teams, but we put a lot into the current car, our restrictor plate programs and also into the Car of Tomorrow. So I am surprised to see, at the end of the day, Hendrick is still at the front, and we're taking trophies."

Earnhardt could be on way out

It looks like the Dale Earnhardt Jr. era is over at Dale Earnhardt Inc.

Earnhardt Jr., the top driver at DEI, the race team his late father started more than a decade ago, is having a news conference this morning at his JR Motorsports shop in North Carolina.

Internet and satellite radio reports indicate that Earnhardt Jr. is going to announce that he is leaving DEI to form his own Cup team with Martin Truex Jr.

Earnhardt Jr. and Truex Jr. are twoof the drivers for DEI's NASCAR Nextel Cup Series team. Paul Menard drives the No. 15 Chevrolet for DEI at the Cup level as well.

Earnhardt Jr. owns JR Motorsports, which competes at the NASCAR Busch Series level with Shane Huffman as driver of the No. 88 Chevrolet. Earnhardt Jr. has competed in two Busch Series races for JR Motorsports this year.

He and Teresa Earnhardt, his stepmother and owner of DEI, have been in contract negotiations since the start of the season. Earnhardt Jr.'s contract with DEI expires after the end of the 2008 season.

Negotiations were going slowly, but Earnhardt Jr. said recently that he was confident a deal would be worked out between him and DEI.

Apparently things have changed, according to Internet reports on Yahoo and NASCAR.com.

The impending split adds to what Earnhardt Jr. said was going to be bad week already. He voiced his disgust with NASCAR's Car of Tomorrow and said he was not looking forward to testing at Lowe's Motor Speedway and Dover International Speedway. And he was not anticipating this weekend's Cup race at Darlington Raceway with the Car of Tomorrow.

"This is about as bad of a week as I could imagine: Two days testing at Charlotte, then going to Darlington for a weekend and then two more days testing at Dover," Earnhardt Jr. said. "Nobody tests at Dover -- everyone tries to avoid that as much as they can. But after that, maybe we'll have some clean sailing and give everyone a day off or something."

As brutal as the testing schedule might be, it does not compare to racing at Darlington, Earnhardt Jr. said. Add the Car of Tomorrow and racing at Darlington becomes a considerable challenge.

"Darlington is just tough, period," Earnhardt Jr. said. "It's a tough track because of the shape and the ancient pavement, but it's really tough on the entire team mentally and physically. It's a track that is so punishing to all of us and we're always relieved when we put the car back on the trailer in one piece."

CAPTION(S):

2 photos, 2 boxes

Photo:

(1) Hendrick Motorsports drivers Jimmie Johnson, front, and Kyle Busch run nose to nose during Sunday's Nextel Cup race, won by Johnson.

Chris Trotman/Getty Images

(2) Dale Earnhardt Jr. is expected to announce today he is leaving DEI.

Chris McGrath/Getty Images

Box:

(1) THIS WEEK

- The Associated Press

(2) Etc.