Dale Earnhardt Jr. wants to be involved in the process of selecting the driver to replace him at Hendrick Motorsports.

Junior, who announced he’d be retiring from the Cup Series at the end of 2017 earlier in the week, said Friday he “would love to have a lot” of input selecting the team’s next driver. With Earnhardt Jr.’s announcement so early in the season, Hendrick said Tuesday the team hadn’t started looking at its options for 2018 and beyond.

Junior drew parallels with his situation and that of former crew chief Steve Letarte, now on NBC’s broadcast crew. Letarte left Junior’s team after the 2014 season to join NBC’s NASCAR coverage.

“When Steve was on his way out, me and him both said anytime anybody in the team is being replaced or if they are being promoted you’ve got to try to make that spot better than it was before,” Junior said. “I felt like that [current crew chief Greg Ives] was the guy that could come in there and make that job better than Steve if we are going to make a change at crew chief we want to upgrade.

If we are going to make a change at driver we want to upgrade. I want that team, I want them to have a driver that I feel is plenty capable because I want to see those guys win races because they are my brothers and I also love it when Rick is happy and he likes to win. I certainly have — I’m invested in that team personally, so I would love to be a part of their future and what they decide to do. I will just wait and see if that is something they want me to be a part of.”

And while Hendrick Motorsports doesn’t know who Junior’s replacement is going to be, Junior hasn’t figured out his next steps yet either. He mentioned how much fun he’s had being a guest analyst for Fox and NBC’s NASCAR coverage and said he wants to continue to have an impact for NASCAR in whatever he does.

“I want to stay busy,” Junior said. “I want to work. One of the people that I really respected a lot was [former broadcaster and NASCAR Hall of Famer] Benny Parsons. I thought that he left as important of a mark outside the car as he did inside the car. Whatever mark I can leave, I would love to be able to be as big an asset to the sport as I can be beyond driving. It’s up to everyone else as to how big an asset I was up to this point, but I’d love to still be helpful and do whatever I can to help the sport. I love being around it and being a part of it and I love racing. I love watching racing. We’ve got a lot of things to be excited about. There’s a lot of young talent pouring in and they’re going to be fun to watch.”

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Nick Bromberg is the editor of Dr. Saturday and From the Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!

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