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FONTANA, Calif. -- Dale Earnhardt Jr. says that an announcement on what car number and who will sponsor him next year is near.

The Charlotte Observer reports that Hendrick Motorsports has applied to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for five possible numbers for Earnhardt. Those numbers are 38, 51, 81, 82 and 58.

"I do have one or two that are really at the top of my list," Earnhardt said, without revealing his choice. "I don't think there's a reason to make a big deal out of it. The bigger deal to me will be the people that we partner with and the sponsorship we put together. That's going to be where the main excitement is for me in the next announcement we make."

POINTS RACE: Two races remain before the Chase for the Nextel Cup begins and Dale Earnhardt Jr. is in danger of missing it for the second time in three years.

Earnhardt enters tonight's race 158 points behind Kurt Busch for the final transfer spot to the Chase. A driver can make up 161 points on a competitor in a race, so Earnhardt will likely enter next weekend's race in Richmond still outside the Chase. Should Earnhardt have a poor race tonight, he could be eliminated from Chase contention.

"If Kurt keeps up as he is, it will be hard for us to do anything about it," Earnhardt said. "If he has an unfortunate engine failure or something like that, maybe we can capitalize on that. It would make it exciting at Richmond. We had a great opportunity this year, and I felt really confident that we would make the Chase, hands down. We went out and ran competitively like we should have, we just weren't able to finish some races and that really cost us a lot."

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