Settle in and wait out the long, hot summer of Junior

Haulers roll out of Lowe's Motor Speedway, drivers pick up the pieces from the Coca-Cola 600, and the long dog days of the NASCAR season settle in. Every racetrack feels like it's 200 degrees. Every event feels like it takes nine hours. For the men who turn the wrenches and the men who turn the steering wheels, the month of June is a hot, interminable one that pushes the body to its limits.

No wonder so many reporters choose this month to take vacation, and turn the beat over to their backups. Standing in the infield at Dover International Speedway, with its unforgiving Mid-Atlantic sun and blinding concrete racing surface, can be like standing in the center of a frying pan. The races are just as intense, just as popular, just as important. But it's as if the entire sport staggers in a weary lassitude toward the next night event, now a long month away.

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And it will seem longer than that. Because everybody is waiting on Junior.

More than the heat, more than the humidity, Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s search for a new race team will make the next month seem to stretch into infinity. The announcement of his impending split with Dale Earnhardt Inc. is weeks behind us, and any announcement of his new home seems weeks ahead. Recent comments made to reporters by his sister and manager, Kelley Earnhardt Elledge, make it seem like any decision is still at least 30 days away. From the beginning, this has shaped up like an overtime playoff hockey game -- it's going to end quickly, or it's going to go on for a long, long time.

There was initial hope of an announcement the weekend of the Coca-Cola 600, which obviously didn't happen. Now we all wonder -- could it possibly get done at Sonoma or Pocono, events that draw only a fraction of the regular NASCAR press, forcing writers and TV producers to cut beach trips short? Doesn't the July 7 race at Daytona International Speedway, where Earnhardt has enjoyed so much success, seem like a logical target? Doesn't a deal have to get done relatively soon to give all those factories in China time to stamp out die-cast cars with his new number and sponsor?

This is what passes for conversation these days in NASCAR media centers, forcing the regular banter about Marriott point levels to the back burner. It's Junior, 24/7. You scour the garage looking for Richard Childress, J.D. Gibbs, Bobby Ginn. You corner friendly public relations representatives and try to wring information out of them. You get the feeling that Junior's people are willing to talk to any team that wants to talk with them, but no one's saying much in public. It's like trying to grab hold of air. (Continued)