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Earnhardt motivates recruits at Great Lakes

For the next few months, recruits in two special divisions at Great Lakes Naval Training Center will carry the Dale Earnhardt Jr. Sponsor Division flag emblazoned with the NASCAR great’s team logo everywhere they go. And for a few hours on Wednesday, the 176 division members got to meet the man behind the logo.

The two divisions — 383 and 388 — named after Earnhardt’s JR Motorsports car and his Navy car, ate lunch with Earnhardt and had the chance to visit with him in their sleeping quarters.

Earnhardt said he was always slightly pulled to the Navy but the pull to the racetrack was much stronger. He encouraged the recruits to stay strong and enjoy their career, which he said is just beginning, said Navy officials.

“He talked about the challenges they are going to come across, and he talked to them about goals,” Navy spokesman Scott Thornbloom said. “We had a lot of good feedback from the recruits. He was here for about three hours.”

The Navy, which has sponsored a car in the NASCAR Nationwide Series since 2001, decided to pull the plug last month and concentrate on other forms of advertising. The Dale Earnhardt Jr. Recruit Division was a separate contract and was “always intended to be a pilot program,” said Lt. j.g. Andrea Ross, Navy Motorsports spokeswoman.

The goal of the $800,000 recruiting contract was to fill 88 slots, but the Navy exceeded that number and started two divisions instead.

“This was the first time something like this has been done in our recruiting world. They’ve had the individual divisions, like the White Sox division, but never a national-level division with a spokesman at the helm,” Ross said. “Now that the program is complete, the Navy is very pleased with the outcome, and it has given us a lot of insight, and we will be able to use the lessons learned on future programs.”

While future celebrity-sponsored divisions are not out of the question, there are “no plans in place at this very moment,” Ross said. As for Earnhardt, he is unlikely to continue in his recruiting role.