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.

Joe Menzer: Kind of corny, but not as much as Kurt Busch's CORN jokes (Car of Right Now).

Ryan Smithson: The Penske boys also call it the COY (Car of Yesterday).

David Caraviello: If I'm Junior, do I want to go to Childress? He's weighted down enough now by family. RCR's not family, but it's the next closest thing. It would be interesting to see him drive for a team with no ties to him or his family.

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Joe Menzer: I would think it might almost be a relief to him. One thing to remember, though, I do think he's very close to the other drivers at DEI.

David Caraviello: And he loves the people at RCR. Those are his daddy's boys. But then you're right back to intertwining close personal relationships with business.

Ryan Smithson: They are getting old, though, David. A lot of them will be retired in a few years.

Joe Menzer: Hey, they might be getting old. But how cool would it be to have him carry on his daddy's legacy there ... in the long run, it might be a lot less stress than trying to do it at DEI.

Ryan Smithson: This next contract is the most important of his career because it encompasses his prime years.

David Caraviello: This can get messy, as we see now.

Joe Menzer: Richard Childress is like a close uncle. He said the other day that if Junior becomes a "free agent," he hopes he looks at RCR first. Interesting.

Ryan Smithson: RCR can form a team at a moment's notice. No one else can. Except maybe Gibbs, and that is a stretch.

David Caraviello: Especially since Budweiser would follow Junior wherever he goes.

Joe Menzer: I mean, does he really want to enter into a long-term relationship with Teresa?

Ryan Smithson: If she hands him a chunk of a nine-figure company, sure.

Joe Menzer: That's exactly what it will take. And nothing less ... or I say he walks.

David Caraviello: If he gets his share, all this is moot. And if Teresa is as smart as everyone says she is, she'll give him that and more.

Joe Menzer: And it has to be a decent chunk, along with more control.

David Caraviello: Still ... it might be interesting to see Dale Jr. drive at a place like Penske or Roush, where all the focus is on performance, and he can shed the burden of all this family stuff.

2. Is the new Las Vegas track too fast?

Joe Menzer: Well, guys seem to be complaining and wrecking an awful lot!

Ryan Smithson: It will be the first year or two, exactly like it was at Atlanta in 1997 and Charlotte in ....well, I forget how many times they have had to pave. Ha!

David Caraviello: What is it with SMI tracks these days?

Joe Menzer: You mean the new "Beast of the Southeast?"

Ryan Smithson: The what?

Joe Menzer: Yeah, they've launched a new campaign ad.

David Caraviello: First Charlotte and Texas. Now Las Vegas. Lord knows what's going to happen when they lay down new concrete at Bristol. Cars will be flying off that banking and over the grandstand.

David Caraviello: And Humpy will call Bristol, "The Launching Pad of East Tennessee." Seriously, though, looks like we might have a situation at Vegas this year like we did in the Coca-Cola 600 a few years back.

Joe Menzer: You heard what Kyle Petty said about it: You don't just give someone -- or some thing -- a nickname out of nowhere after 50 years. He said, and I quote, "It doesn't work that way, dude."

Ryan Smithson: In Vegas' defense, the Trucks put on good show there last fall.

David Caraviello: Was the new banking complete then?

Ryan Smithson: Yes. But obviously the Trucks are slower.

Joe Menzer: It could be that Vegas is too fast now -- at least until the drivers learn to deal with it by simply slowing down a little. These things sometimes take time.

David Caraviello: And it being a testing session, guys are playing around with unorthodox stuff. You'd hope they'd rein it in on the race weekend.

Joe Menzer: I'm more worried about reining myself in at the Blackjack table when we go out there for the race!

Ryan Smithson: Just don't play, Joe. Play poker instead, you can control your winnings easier.

Joe Menzer: Or my losses.

David Caraviello: I'm more worried about reining you in to the track the next morning.

Ryan Smithson: The track is forever and a day away from the Strip.

David Caraviello: And it may take Joe that long to get there.

Joe Menzer: Sounds like I'd better quit playing by sunrise to make it.

3. Penske's building a test track? When will the spending stop?

David Caraviello: Man, all we heard last week was owners griping about money. Well, if that test track becomes a reality, Roger has upped the price of poker considerably.

Ryan Smithson: Let's wait and see if he actually builds it first.

Joe Menzer: For some of these guys, including Penske, the spending will never stop. He's got it, it's going to keep coming in from all his other sources, and he's going to keep spending it.

David Caraviello: He sounded pretty sure. Now you won't just need a 300,000 square-foot shop. You'll also need 70 acres of land in the backyard.

Joe Menzer: I think he will definitely build it -- unless some local ordinance prohibits him from doing so. He's already got the land, by the way.

Ryan Smithson: He is out in the sticks, but the neighbors will fight him for sure. Those things are not very quiet.

David Caraviello: Is it not like they'll be testing at 3 a.m., Ryan.

Ryan Smithson: No, but noise isn't much fun for seniors. Remember the RCR engine dyno story?

David Caraviello: There was an RCR engine dyno story? How did I miss that?

Ryan Smithson: Yeah, the engine room got to be so loud, neighbors started complaining.

Joe Menzer: If that happens, Roger will probably buy the neighbor's house, and the one next to it, too.

David Caraviello: Penske has no neighbors. He's in an industrial park.

David Caraviello: RCR has houses a block away.

Ryan Smithson: There are houses within 2 miles, David. Like I said, we will see.

Ryan Smithson: I remember Robert Yates used to have his shop in a bad area because no one complained when he ran his dynos.

David Caraviello: I don't know. They kind of like their race shops in Mooresville, N.C. They kind of let the NASCAR types do what they want.

Joe Menzer: I have a funny feeling that Roger will have a way with the local authorities if anyone complains too much.

Joe Menzer: He'll buy whatever he needs to. But like I said, he'll clear it with the local powers-that-be first -- and I don't think he'll have a problem.

David Caraviello: Suddenly, there will be a new Penske dealership in Mooresville, complete with 200 new jobs.

Joe Menzer: You are right, David. They love NASCAR in Mooresville and bend over backwards to accommodate it. I don't think this will be any different. I think it's going to be awesome, by the way.

David Caraviello: I hope for test rides on an upcoming media tour.

Joe Menzer: I'm up for some media rides.

Ryan Smithson: Can you fit in the car, Joe? Through the right-side window? They don't have a door.

Joe Menzer: Hey, I worked out this morning. Maybe we could play Blackjack to see who gets to ride first?

Ryan Smithson: Just double down on 11.

The opinions expressed are solely of the participants.