DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (Feb. 6, 2009) -- Dale Earnhardt Jr. made his first start as a Hendrick Motorsports driver here during the 2008 Budweiser Shootout, and he couldn’t have asked for a better debut.

Throughout the past two decades, Hendrick Motorsports has achieved great success on NASCAR’s most famous track, Daytona International Speedway. As the teams prepare for this Sunday’s Daytona 500, they ...