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Earnhardt gets Navy recruit quota

NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt, Jr. is now a Navy recruiter — and officials want to see if he meets a quota of 88 recruits by the end of August.

Recruits who sign up to attend boot camp as part of the “Dale Earnhardt Jr. Division” will ship to Recruit Training Command in Great Lakes, Ill., the week of Aug. 18-22.

Once the recruits go through in-processing, the division will be commissioned by Earnhardt, who is expected to join the recruits later in training, possibly for their BattleStations final exercise or the graduation ceremony.

The money’s not bad, either — officials say the price tag for his services is “about $800,000 plus some additional money for media buys,” said Lt. j.g. Andrea Ross, Navy Motorsports Program Manager on the staff of the Navy’s chief of personnel in Arlington, Va.

“This dollar amount covers the upfront costs associated with launching a national-level marketing analysis program,” she said. “We have been involved in NASCAR as a sponsor in one way or another since 2001 and we feel like we need to, once and for all, test the true recruiting power of our partner in this effort, Dale Earnhardt Jr.”

Earnhardt and the Navy jointly announced the effort Thursday in Talledega, Ala.

Navy officials won’t start swearing in recruits the special division until May 24, when Earnhardt will drive a No. 83 Navy Monte Carlo SS race car decked out in a special paint scheme commemorating the recruit division in the CarQuest Auto Parts 300 race at Lowe’s Motor Speedway in Charlotte, N.C. — part of the Nationwide Series where JR Motorsports fields two teams.

Also in that race will be Brad Keselowski, regular driver of the No. 88 Navy Chevrolet who is competing in his first full season of Nationwide Series races.

Keselowski will also visit the recruits during training, Ross said, and will learn marching and damage control, as well as participating in physical training.

If successful, this pilot program could lead to further involvement by Earnhardt with the Navy, possibly including more recruit divisions down the line, Ross said.

“It also gives us the opportunity to obtain solid metrics on what we get out of our Navy participation in NASCAR,” she said.