Track Smack: Where will Junior end up?

1. Has the media overblown the whole Teresa/DEI/Dale Jr. contract saga?

Ryan Smithson: Not yet, but they will. NASCAR makes every driver in the top 10 do weekly news conferences, and if Dale Jr. has a good Daytona, which he should, he is in for a long season of questions.

Joe Menzer: I don't think so. I think Teresa has overblown it, and is in danger of blowing it altogether, by not sitting down with her stepson and just getting a deal hammered out. The questions will not stop until a contract is signed.

David Caraviello: There's obviously some tension there, as evidenced by recent remarks both Teresa and Dale Jr. have made in the media. We're not at the point where we have a struggle for team direction, but Junior clearly wants -- and deserves -- a bigger piece than he's getting.

Ryan Smithson: She doesn't have to hand over the entire organization, though, David. Just give him a quarter stake.

Joe Menzer: How about the other night at the DEI dinner on the media tour, when Teresa stood there, did a few introductions, and then ducked behind a curtain -- leaving Dale Jr. to deal with all the questions on an island?

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Ryan Smithson: She's the Wizard.

David Caraviello: It all boils down to Teresa realizing what everyone else already knows -- Dale Jr. is DEI. The day he walks, that team loses virtually all the stature it has in this sport.

Ryan Smithson: I was thinking of this the other day ... if he walks, DEI truly is up the creek. It will have a two-car team with two inexperienced drivers.

Joe Menzer: Jeff Gordon said it best the other day: Dale Jr. can do whatever he wants -- start his own team, sign back with DEI if it comes up with what he wants, go to Richard Childress, whatever.

Ryan Smithson: I'll bet the last thing Kevin Harvick wants is the RCR solution, Joe. He no longer would be No. 1.

David Caraviello: Maybe they should call it DEJI, because that's truly what it is right now.

Joe Menzer: If another Earnhardt ends up with Childress, it will be Deji Vu.

David Caraviello: Nice one, Joe.(Continued)