No. 88 team to join Hendrick Motorsports teammates at the 2012 Pit Crew Challenge

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s No. 88 pit crew will be part of the  2012 NASCAR Sprint Pit Crew Challenge, which will be held at 7 p.m. Thursday at Time Warner Cable Arena in Charlotte.

Entering its eighth year of competition, the Pit Crew Challenge will feature 24 of the top NASCAR Sprint Cup Series pit crews, including all four Hendrick Motorsports teams, in a head-to-head competition. Champions will be crowned on an individual and team basis.

The Nos. 5, 24 and 48 teams automatically qualified for the Challenge by being eligible for the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race, which will be held Saturday, May 19 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Earnhardt’s No. 88 pit crew qualified for the Challenge based on the owner standings as of May 14. The driver of the No. 88 National Guard/Diet Mountain Dew Chevrolet has earned four top-five finishes and eight top-10s in the first 11 races of the 2012 season to rank his team in third.

A major perk of winning Thursday’s team event is pit stall preference for Saturday’s exhibition event. The victorious team gets first choice of pit stalls for the All-Star Race on Saturday. The No. 48 team took runner-up honors in 2011, but a Hendrick Motorsports team has yet to win it all.

Tickets for the Pit Crew Challenge start at $15 and can be purchased online at www.pitcrewchallenge.com or by calling Time Warner Cable Arena box office at (800) 745-3000. SPEED’s broadcast of the event begins at 8 p.m.