Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Tony Eury, Sr, Richie Gilmore and Martin Truex, Jr. addressed the media and revealed the team’s intentions and approach for the Siemens 300 on Sunday. The following move was necessitated because of the burn injuries Dale Jr. received last week at Infineon Raceway in an American Le Mans Series event.

Martin Truex, Jr., who normally drives the No. 8 Chance 2 Motorsports Chevrolet, will practice the No. 8 Budweiser Chevrolet and qualify the car on Friday. He will also partake in the Happy Hour session on Saturday.

However, for the start of the race on Sunday, Dale Jr. will take the green flag and, at some point soon after, Martin will replace Dale Jr. in the car. The reason for Dale Jr. to start the race is to earn the assigned points that go along with the car’s finish.

Martin will finish the race and whatever position he earns in the final rundown, those points will go to Dale Jr. in the Official Standings for the Nextel Cup Series.

“I’m really disappointed because I’ve never really been in this situation before,” Dale Jr. said wearing a bandage around his neck. “But, Martin is going to be able to do this because he’s a good race car driver and he’s a good friend. I’m just looking forward to getting things going this weekend.”

All through the week, the team was deciding on what to do in different scenarios and how to prepare for the race weekend. Dale Jr. visited the shop on Thursday, put on his uniform and sat in the No. 8 Chevrolet to see how it all felt.

Collectively, Dale Jr, Tony Sr. and Richie came to a conclusion and plan for the weekend. Tony Sr. talked about having Martin in the car to relieve Dale Jr.

“Well, this isn’t the situation we wanted to be in,” said Tony Sr., seated right beside Dale Jr. “Jimmie Johnson is giving us a hard time in the points race. We had to make decision on what we wanted to do here and Dale Jr. is very disappointed this happened.

“But, we’re going to make the best of it. And, I think we made the best choice on the guy we’re going to put in the car here in Martin. I think he showed last year, and this year, that he’s definitely got the talent.

“He’s ours, he belongs to DEI and we’re going to use him and get the best we can out of this weekend.”

Martin tested with the No. 8 Cup team at NHIS in early July and has vast experience at the one-mile oval in Busch and Busch North Series races. The plan is for him to get in the car at the earliest opportunity after the initial green flag.

“Hopefully, we’ll get a caution and be able to make the change without losing a lap,” Martin said. “We’ll just have to see what happens. I don’t think it’s going to be that hard; it’s just going to take a little bit of time.”

Richie said there is no set time as to when Dale Jr. will get out of the car right now. That factor will be better determined once Dale Jr. takes a few laps in the car, but that won’t happen until Saturday.

“I think, right now, we’re going to see how Dale Jr. feels after running a few laps of practice on Saturday,” Richie said. “Physically, the doctor said he’s in great shape. The things we have to worry about are the heat outside and inside the car.

“So far, I’ve heard we’re going to have some cooler temperatures here on Sunday and that will help. I think we’ll know a lot better after Saturday how he feels in the race car and take it from there.

“We want Martin to practice and qualify the car on Friday so he can have more time with the team. That will give him more time toward Sunday and hopefully we can get the car qualified up front and get a good pit stall.

“Once we qualify and can pick our pit stall, that should help us as to when we’ll make the driver change.”

Because of the rules of a driver change between qualifying and the start of the race, Dale Jr. will start at the rear of the field no matter where Martin qualifies the car.

Martin will be very busy this weekend as he will also be taking part in the Siemens 200 race on Saturday for the Busch Series. He’ll be wheeling the No. 8 KFC Chevrolet for that race.

In more news from the Dale Earnhardt, Inc. stable, Paul Menard will be making his first start in the No. 11 Menards Chevrolet for his new team.

Qualifying for Martin and Paul in the Busch Series race is at 1:30 p.m. (ET) and can be seen live on Speed TV. Race time is 1 p.m. on Saturday and can be seen live on TNT.

Qualifying for Martin, in place of Dale Jr., and teammate Michael Waltrip in the No. 15 NAPA Auto Parts in the Siemens 300 Nextel Cup Series race is Friday at 3 p.m. That session can be seen live on FX and heard on MRN. Race time on Sunday is 2 p.m. and can be seen live on TNT and heard on MRN.

Be sure to tune into Trackside at 7 p.m. on Friday night as Martin will be one of the guests on the SPEED TV show co-hosted by Michael Waltrip.