National Guard vies to sponsor Dale Jr.

No final decision has been made regarding Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s future team sponsor at Hendrick Motorsports, but one is expected within the month and possibly within the next two weeks, multiple sources close to the negotiations said Monday.

It is widely speculated that PepsiCo. is the leading candidate to sponsor Earnhardt through its Mountain Dew brand, but sources with knowledge of negotiations say National Guard is also a top candidate as part of a split sponsorship package.

National Guard currently sponsors Hendrick's No. 25 car, driven by Casey Mears.

Sources say the combined deal will be the richest team sponsorship in NASCAR history, somewhere between $25 million and $30 million annually.

Earnhardt said last week that Navy will continue its sponsorship of JR Motorsports' No. 88 Busch Series entry in 2008, but sources said that would not conflict with a potential National Guard association in the Sprint Cup Series. ESPN.com