NASCAR royalty settling in at new digs

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MOORESVILLE, N.C. -- It was an emotional day on many fronts around here on Day Three of NASCAR's annual media tour, and that was even before the tour hit Michael Waltrip's rebounding Toyota operation for a late-evening stop to consider Dale Jarrett's looming final Daytona 500 run:-- Richard and Kyle Petty, in their new race shop, talked about the just-completed move from nearby Level Cross, N.C., after 60 years working from their family homestead.-- Teresa Earnhardt, just around the corner here over on Highway 3, Coddle Creek, wiped clean the slate for 2008 and has apparently removed every trace of Dale Earnhardt Jr. from DEI.-- Dale Earnhardt Jr., a couple of miles down the road at Rick Hendrick's, was clearly relishing his new lease on stock-car racing life, firing up new teammates Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson and Casey Mears, and making a believer out of Hendrick.While another bizarre scene unfolded at DEI, all appears well at Hendrick's shop, and at the Pettys'. After winning 18 of last year's 36 Nextel Cup races, and a second straight championship with Jimmie Johnson, Hendrick and his men don't seem to have lost a step. Doug Duchardt, one of Hendrick's top competition directors, said he's not worried about engine problems at the season-opening Daytona 500, and Duchardt pointed out that his drivers are among the best at the Daytona draft.However only a few miles away, two NASCAR empires -- Dale Earnhardt Inc. and newly moved Petty Enterprises -- appear heading in different directions as the new stock-car racing season gets under way.Richard Petty was holding court at his new shop, the former Robert Yates compound over by I-77, and recounting some of the great, and not-so-great, moments in his family's many years in this sport.Meanwhile, at DEI, the scene was surreal. Jeff Gordon noted later in the day that things at DEI might be different today if not for 2001.Petty and the late Dale Earnhardt are the only two drivers to win NASCAR's top championship seven times. Dale Earnhardt Jr., who will soon turn 34, is still looking for his first, and he's moved over to Hendrick's Chevy camp to see if that gets his unexpectedly stagnant career back in gear.However, within the DEI compound Wednesday there was a sense that the people running that program don't see the big picture.At DEI all the changes could create turmoil, particularly now without Dale Earnhardt Jr. With Dale Earnhhardt Jr. moving on, and with Dale Earnhardt dead seven years, DEI's position in this sport is up for hot debate.The focus, of course, is Teresa Earnhardt, who has never been comfortable in the spotlight, even before the death of her husband, and who has declined to be interviewed for several years now. She did work the room briefly Wednesday during the DEI stop, but it wasn't clear if that was another step in pushing her to center stage and change her ice-queen image. After walking from table to table to greet the journalists, she vanished, as has been her style.In a strange touch, and rather sad, in DEI's Garage Mahal there was nary a sign of any Dale Earnhardt Jr. trophies or souvenirs. It was as if Earnhardt Jr. never even existed.Max Siegel, billed as DEI's president of global operations, talked about last summer's Ginn merger, picking up Mark Martin and Bobby Ginn's shop, expanding DEI, and Segal called 2007 "a year of a lot of change and excitement." Now, he said: "We want to expand beyond the traditional forms of support ..." in terms of sponsorship.However, despite some major PR issues hanging over DEI, focusing on the reclusive Teresa Earnhardt, Segal declined to allow the 200-plus journalists to do any traditional one-on-one interviews, apparently not wanting to offer any openings to discuss the loss of the third generation racer.While the Pettys offered a warm, personal atmosphere to the throng of journalists, DEI executives offered a cut-and-dried table of organization and a few general answers to general questions.Where Teresa Earnhardt herself is going is unclear. She again let Siegel answer the questions about her increasingly mysterious public persona: Are DEI execs trying to get her to open up to the world? And how important is it for DEI to get Earnhardt into a more public role?Siegel: "It is important for us to know you (journalists) have a job to do, and our organization wants to get its information out."At the same time we're a private organization, and we try to strike a balance between the privacy of the company."Teresa has been dedicated to this organization for a long time. There has been some miscommunication out there. So we have tried to surround her with a team that can give her some comfort."She has participated in this company very actively, whether it's out front or behind the scenes, and I fully expect her to continue to do so."Martin will have to carry the banner for DEI now, ironic considering his many battles on-track with the late racer."I just want to thank Teresa ... it's a real honor for me," Martin said of his new role at DEI, in the number 8 that Junior ran the past six seasons. "I raced against this car ...there's a lot of history here. Dale Earnhardt gave me a lot of lessons."But Martin this season will not have veteran Ryan Pemberton as his crew chief; that role will go to Tony Gibson, with Pemberton moving to Michael Waltrip's.(Contact Mike Mulhern at mmulhern@wsjournal.com.)(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)