Charlotte, N.C. ? Dale Earnhardt Jr. wants to win championships, and there’s no better place to do that than at Hendrick Motorsports.

The most frenzied free agency in NASCAR history will end today when Earnhardt reveals where he’ll drive next season, and all signs point to Rick Hendrick’s elite organization.

Hendrick, winner of six championships since 1995, currently fields cars for four-time champion Jeff Gordon, defending series champion Jimmie Johnson, Kyle Busch and Casey Mears. With all four drivers under contract, Hendrick told The Associated Press last month he had “no room at the inn” for Earnhardt.

But a half-dozen people familiar with the negotiations – speaking to the AP on condition of anonymity because Earnhardt’s plans have not been announced – said Hendrick officials have been working for nearly three weeks to bring the star driver into the fold. There were rumblings late Monday that Busch, who is under contract through 2008, has asked to be released from his contract.

Asked if that was true, Hendrick spokesman Jesse Essex said, “We don’t comment on contractual issues.”

Busch was testing in Milwaukee on Tuesday and not available to comment. It’s unclear why the 22-year-old Busch would want to leave Hendrick, the most dominant team in NASCAR with 10 wins through 14 points races this season.

Busch has four career victories, one this season, and made the Chase for the championship last year, finishing 10th in the standings. He’s currently 10th, but has wrecked a bunch of cars in both the Nextel Cup and Busch Series, and upset his team at Texas in April when he left the track without telling anyone after an accident.

His crew patched up the car, but with no driver to take it back on the track, asked Earnhardt to finish the race in the No. 5 Chevrolet.

“Junior didn’t hesitate and agreed, and it was a very sportsmanlike gesture,” Alan Gustafson, Busch’s crew chief, said after the race. “It says a lot about Dale and the kind of person he is.”

It created rampant speculation Earnhardt was headed to Hendrick, a rumor that only intensified following his May 10 announcement he will leave his late father’s company at the end of this season. He made the announcement at his race shop, JR Motorsports, same site of today’s scheduled news conference.