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BRISTOL, Tenn. -- Dale Earnhardt Inc. has selected a driver to replace Dale Earnhardt Jr. next season, but won't reveal his identity for another two weeks, said Max Siegel, DEI's president of global operations.

Siegel wouldn't say Saturday at Bristol Motor Speedway who the new driver will be because the team is in the process of telling other drivers considered that they didn't get the ride.

Siegel also said Mark Martin will drive in at least 24 Nextel Cup races and the two non-points races next season, when he will share his ride with Aric Almirola. Siegel said the team plans to have Almirola drive most weekends. When he's not in a Cup car, he'll be in a Busch car.

Felix Sabates, a co-owner with Chip Ganassi, said he doubts DEI will get a top driver, although that team has two drivers who could make the Chase for the Nextel Cup.

"Until they have somebody at the top of the organization that communicates with the rest of the people, you're going to have mediocre forever with the race team,'' said Sabates, referring to car owner Teresa Earnhardt. "If you take the top 15 drivers in the points, there ain't one of those guys that wants to drive for DEI. The top 20, nobody wants to drive for DEI.

"(Siegel) has done a great job, but when it comes to making expenditures ... Max can't make those decisions. She ain't going to let him.''

Siegel said Teresa Earnhardt stays involved in the operation.

"We've got a job to do, and she stays focused on that,'' Siegel said.

BLANK SCREEN: Human error caused ESPN2 to lose its signal in the final laps of Friday's Busch broadcast from Bristol and caused fans to miss the final two laps, ESPN spokesman George McNeilly said.

"We sincerely apologize for briefly losing transmission due to human error and have taken steps to prevent this from happening again,'' McNeilly said in a statement. "As soon as transmission was re-established we apologized to viewers and replayed the last two laps of the race.''

OOPS: A glitch prevented NASCAR from checking videotape to see if Kyle Busch crossed the commitment line when he faked going into the pits during the Busch race.

"Our checks and balances failed,'' said David Hoots, NASCAR Nextel Cup Series director. "We didn't have that opportunity to review it.''

A NASCAR official ruled that Busch crossed the line and should have entered the pits instead of returning to the track. A replay, which showed the call was wrong, became available after NASCAR penalized Busch and put him at the back of the field. NASCAR admitted the mistake, but it was too late to change his place in the lineup.

GOING TO JAIL: The New York Times reports that team owner Gene Haas will enter a guilty plea Monday to conspiracy of cheating the government out of $34.3 million in taxes. Haas is to serve two years in prison as part of a plea agreement, the newspaper reported.

The charges came from three fake invoices involving Haas' company, NASCAR team and a land title company. The team, Haas-CNC Racing, began listing the team's general manager, Joe Custer, as its owner in June.

PIT STOPS: Fans can purchase DVDs of races from this season that feature in-car video and audio for select drivers, giving fans different viewpoints of the event, along with other features. Cost is $34.95 per race. For more information, go to http://www.myracedvd.com.

Contact Dustin Long at 373-7062 or dlong@news-record.com