Wheeler wants Earnhardt to 'get back to winning'

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Leave it to a master promoter to bring a new angle to the stale story of the Dale Earnhardt Jr. contract negotiations with Dale Earnhardt Inc., the racing organization his father Dale and stepmother Teresa founded.

When Earnhardt showed up at Lowe's Motor Speedway on Tuesday ostensibly to promote next month's Nextel Cup All-Star Challenge, colorful LMS track president Humpy Wheeler pulled out a poster labeled "Big Contract" and said he was willing to give Junior .51-percent ownership of the track for just a few "services rendered."

Negotiation easy?

David Caraviello says Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s real task isn't playing hard ball. It's building DEI back to where it should be.

• Complete story, click here
• Large price tag attached
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Among the services Wheeler suggested: tram driver, Victory Lane "etiquette coach," pre-race musician and personal chauffeur for track owner Bruton Smith. Earnhardt laughed and said he might perform the last two, but would not have anything to do with the first two.

"I guess our negotiations have begun," Wheeler joked.

The negotiations between Earnhardt and DEI, meanwhile, continue to drag on with little or no visible progress, at least to the public eye. Earnhardt reiterated again Tuesday that there is nothing new to report, even though reports had been circulating that for Earnhardt to fulfill his publicly stated desire of 51-percent ownership in DEI Teresa Earnhardt might very well require him to write a check in the neighborhood of $55 million for control in a company that is estimated to be worth about $110 million.

Asked about those reports, Earnhardt said: "There's really nothing new going on with the contract. When there's something new, I'll tell you. I know you hate to hear it as much as I hate to say it, but there's just nothing new to report."

Wheeler later said he knows what the Earnhardt negotiations are really all about. He said that whether Earnhardt stays with DEI or goes somewhere new, it's all about the popular driver making certain he ends up wherever he will have the best chance to win the most races.

And Wheeler, ever the track promoter, is all for it. It has been 33 races since Earnhardt last won -- almost one full calendar year since he won at Richmond last fall. Wheeler said that is too long.

"What I want to see is him get back to winning. That's what drives ticket sales. He right now tips the cash register better and faster than any driver we've got -- when he wins. And even sometimes when he does really good and he doesn't win," Wheeler said.

"The sport is driven by the personalities in it. He outsells everybody else today -- in souvenirs, ticket response and everything else. So I just want him to get in the right place where he can win."

That might wind up being DEI and might end up being another racing organization, Wheeler said. He said that he believes Earnhardt wants it to be DEI, but isn't sure yet if it will be in the end.

"Well, I think just from what I'm looking at, he's trying to restructure DEI and make it what he wants it to be. And he wants to win," Wheeler said.

"A superstar driver can go through a lean year or two, but that's it. You've got to start winning again. And he knows all that. He knows that the heat is on."

From 2000 through 2004 -- his first five full seasons competing in what is now the Nextel Cup level -- Earnhardt won 15 races. That put him on a similar pace to what his father averaged in wins over a career that eventually spanned 26 full seasons and netted the elder Earnhardt 76 victories.

But since then, Junior has struggled to get to Victory Lane -- winning only once in each of the last two seasons and going winless over the first eight events of this season.

Wheeler said that if the younger Earnhardt and his sister, Kelley Earnhardt Elledge, need to come up with $55 million to gain a controlling interest in DEI, it shouldn't be all that difficult to do.

"Fifty-five million is a lot of money, but it's not that much in the larger scheme of things -- when you've got a long-term deal. In this business, as strong as it is right now and as strong as contracts are and are going to be, it's not that much," Wheeler said.

Wheeler also said that he believes Earnhardt and his sister, who is handling the driver's end of the negotiations with DEI, are being careful not to offend anyone else in the family.

"He's very loyal, and that is a big family that has got far-reaching tentacles. And I think that's why this thing is taking so long. I think he's giving everybody an opportunity to say no, but hopes they say yes," Wheeler said.

Despite his death as the result of an accident in the 2001 Daytona 500, the elder Earnhardt's spirit seems to loom all over these negotiations between the son he loved and the organization he built from the ground up along with his wife.

The younger Earnhardt was asked Tuesday what he thought his late father would think of the current negotiations -- and he wasn't talking about the playful ones between him and Wheeler. He also was asked if he thought his father ever intended for him to possibly one day leave DEI's employment.

"If my dad was alive, a lot of things would be different -- a whole lot. I really don't like to deal with the hypothetical," Earnhardt said. "But I think he would be pretty proud of what I've accomplished. I think he'd be pretty proud of my sister, too, and I think he'd be proud of all the employees at DEI. I think he would be happy with the caliber of race teams that we have and the caliber of people that we have."

But would he be happy with the number of race wins they currently are generating? Wheeler thinks not.

"We've had a lot of father-son deals in this sport," Wheeler said. "But that was one of the strongest bonds we've ever had, and it continues today. ... It's still there. And it is Dale Earnhardt [Incorporated]. I just think [Earnhardt Jr.] wants to see it where it puts him in a position where he can continue to drive and win races. That's what this is all about -- winning races."

"I don't know that the [points] championship is that important [to him], frankly. Winning races is. He wants to win a lot of races. If he wins a championship as the result of that, that's fine. But winning races is his focus."

Speaking shortly after his news conference at Wheeler's track with national media via a teleconference call, Earnhardt said that he expects to end up staying with DEI.

"I'm pretty excited that ... things are going to work out with the negotiations," he said. "The good Lord's going to take me wherever I go in life. I'll be fine. ... I'm going to win races."