Dale Earnhardt Jr. said he would like to remain at DEI to drive the No. 8 Chevrolet. Credit: Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images

Notebook: Junior talks contract, family bonds

Harvick's new sponsor a way to start fresh, build own identity

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Dale Earnhardt Jr. took a break Monday during Jackson Hewitt Preseason Thunder at Daytona to say he didn't want to talk about his ongoing contract negotiations with Dale Earnhardt Inc. officials.

But once he got going, Earnhardt's opinions flew like the rain that washed out the afternoon's testing when he said life with stepmother Teresa Earnhardt "ain't a bed of roses" but that he wanted to remain as the driver of the No. 8 Chevrolet.

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The storm began before Christmas when Teresa Earnhardt was quoted in a Wall Street Journal article as saying Dale Jr. had to decide whether he wanted to be a racecar driver or a personality.

"I tried and tried not to comment on it," Junior said Monday. "I didn't want to comment to the press on it -- because, you know, even if I don't and she don't want to be in a pitching war back and forth, you guys can make one out of it if you want.

"I really didn't appreciate it, whether she was taken out of context or not. I just didn't really appreciate it. I don't know. She might have just been having a bad day or something when she said that. I really don't know where that was coming from."

The most telling comment came when Earnhardt said his relationship with his stepmother hadn't changed since he was a child.

"Well, I don't want to really get too personal, but Teresa is my stepmother, and I have a mother at home that I have a very good relationship with," he said. "Mine and Teresa's relationship has always been very black and white, very strict and in your face.

"The relationship that we have today is the same relationship we had when I was 6 years old when I moved into that house with dad and her. It's always been the same ... it's always been the same. The way I felt about her then is the way I feel about her now."

While saying he hadn't wanted to enjoin in a Donald Trump-like media sniping fest with media member Rosie O'Donnell, Earnhardt said the uncertainty of his contract situation was his biggest concern heading into the 2007 season, as he tries to improve upon his fifth-place points finish last year.

"I think the thing that's bothering me the most is probably the contract," Earnhardt said. "There's really nothing being hidden or pushed under the rug here. I don't have the answers no more than I can give them to y'all.

"It's just about trying to make life as simple as you can make it and trying to make everything as successful as you can make it. I don't want to come here if I can't compete well and run well and I just get by. I want the best -- I want the best cars [and] I want the best people."

DEI's director of motorsports Richie Gilmore, who was at the test, told several reporters that there was little concern over the negotiations. Earnhardt said there was at least one sticking point, and he agreed future control of the organization was an obvious answer.

"I like driving the red Bud car with the No. 8 on it, and to drive that car, you have to drive for DEI," Earnhardt said. "Basically I don't really know what to tell you other than that. We're working to get through the contract and finish up a new deal."

Never again?

For the first time in his life, Kasey Kahne said not only was he out of the country, but gone from home for Christmas, thanks to his recent holiday vacation and Sprint Car racing trip to Australia.

Monday, he said he would think hard about his scheduling, if there was a next time.

"I thought it would be a good idea, you know, just to go and do something different over the holidays," Kahne said. "And once I was there, I realized I was wrong. It was not the right thing to do.

"From now on, if I go to Australia or anywhere else, I'll go maybe on the 26th [of December] instead of the 20th and stay at home for Christmas."

I'm Kevin Harvick

	It may take time for fans to get accustomed to seeing Kevin Harvick in red and yellow, but he said he likes the new identity. Credit: Autostock
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Kevin Harvick, who finished third last season in his first attempt at the Chase for the Nextel Cup, appeared in the media center Monday in a glowing yellow Shell uniform. He said he was ready to go for 2007, with the only changes on his Richard Childress Racing team being the retirement of longtime hauler driver Jim Baldwin and the departure of one in-shop employee.

"That's really the only turnover we've had on our team and it's intact as it was before," Harvick said.

And he had an interesting perspective on the new team colors giving him a chance to establish his own identity. In 2001 Harvick took over Childress' black No. 3 Chevrolet, formerly driven by the late Dale Earnhardt.

"The new sponsor with Shell Pennzoil for me is good, you know," Harvick said. "It kind of gets you out from underneath that shadow of everything that we had, you know, with Dale.

"It's hard for me to kind of beat down somebody else's path when you're used to beating your own path. It's a good start for me with a company that's behind me 100 percent, and not that Goodwrench wasn't, but it's just so much in the past that everything it had to do with."

That's what I said

Boris Said skipped last weekend's Rolex 24 at Daytona test to compete in and win the Bodine Bobsled Challenge in upstate New York. But now he's back in Daytona for this week's Nextel Cup test.

On Monday, he said he was excited about his No Fear team's seven-race schedule, but they were hoping and planning for bigger and better things.

"We're twice as far ahead from where we were last year because last year we didn't even have a sponsorship deal together until April," Said said. "Now we have seven races for sure. We have three speedway cars in our building. We have a brand new downforce car ready to go and we have three Car of Tomorrows on order with Roush [Racing], so everything seems like it's going along."

Said said his goals for 2007 are simple.

"I would like to win a Cup race this year, and I would like to make the Daytona 500," he said. "Those are my goals for the year and then, hopefully, we can talk Pepsi into doing more races. We're set up to add more if sponsorship comes along."

Said said that his theme, "buy more cases, run more races," had been successful to this point.

"People bought cases," he said. "At the end of the year it looked like they might cancel the program and then all of their reports came in and they're back in with more races, so I think they're really getting behind it and using the bottlers and retailers.

"We're showing them that we're selling more product, so I hope it will keep building."