"Deadbeat owner"

CONCORD, N.C. – Teresa Earnhardt, a "deadbeat owner"?

Why, them's almost fightin' words.

During Tuesday's NASCAR Media Tour stop at Richard Childress Racing in Welcome, N.C., Kevin Harvick did a bit of lobbying for rival Dale Earnhardt Jr. and his on-going, drawn-out contract negotiations to remain at Dale Earnhardt Inc., after this season, taking a direct shot at Little E's stepmother and primary DEI owner.

"I think it's hard when you have what I call a deadbeat owner that doesn't come to the racetrack," Harvick said. "You always see Rick Hendrick, Richard Childress, Chip Ganassi and all these other owners, and they all come to the racetrack.

"It's not just a money bit, where someone says, 'Well, I can make money off Dale Jr. or off Dale Earnhardt.' You can't run these race teams away from the racetrack. You have to be at the race track, you have to play the politics of the sport, you have to be part of your team and you have to understand what's going on. Me, from the outside looking in, it just doesn't look like that's happening."

Tuesday evening, prior to the debut of the Paul Newman-narrated biography of his late father, "Dale," the younger Earnhardt had little to say when asked by Yahoo! Sports to comment directly to what Harvick said.

"Man, you're killing me," Earnhardt replied. "That's (Harvick's comments) ridiculous. I don't really think there's a comment for Kevin's remarks."

Yahoo! Sports also asked Junior whether he would like his stepmother at races to support him, as owners of other Cup teams do to their drivers. While not making excuses for her absences, Junior alluded to some of the things Teresa Earnhardt has gone through since the death of Dale Sr.

"With everything that's happened, not just to the company but to the family over the last five years, she's had a full plate," Junior said. "The things she's been responsible for willingly and openly are very important for a long time, the battle over the autopsy photos (of her late husband), all these things."

"That's just the tip of the iceberg of the stuff that she's been responsible for, and had to take care of and had to deal with. That's probably been the sole reason why she hasn't been as visible at the race track and what not. But she's taken [care of] things that are much important when it comes to the family."

Whether Teresa Earnhardt's presence and theoretical moral support at races might improve the success of the entire organization, the younger Earnhardt seemed to be willing to cut his stepmother some slack.

"I've got guys and DEI has great people in great positions for us to be successful on the race track," he said. "We've got (DEI director of motorsports) Richie Gilmore and Max (new director of global operations Max Siegel) coming in. We've got people in the right places. I like everybody that works there. I love our team and all the guys on our team. That's all you really need is good people around you. She (Teresa) delegates real well. I get along with Richie and he does a great job running the motorsports side of it."

Despite Harvick's comments, Earnhardt said contract negotiations are continuing to potentially keep him at DEI, but added he didn't expect anything to be completed – if at all – for at least "a couple more months."

For what it's worth, Harvick, whose nickname is Happy, said he most certainly would live up to that moniker if Junior became his teammate next season.

"How happy would I be to have him as a teammate? I'd jump up and down," Harvick said.

PETTY ORGANIZATION ON MOVE?

After more than 50 years in Level Cross, N.C., Petty Enterprises might soon be packing up.

Vice President of Racing Operations Robbie Loomis, who oversees the day-to-day affairs of the company's two Nextel Cup teams, told reporters Tuesday that he's exploring the possibility of moving the company's headquarters closer to Charlotte, which is the hub of NASCAR racing.

Loomis said he's initially targeted two areas: near Salisbury, N.C., which is about 40 miles south of Petty Enterprises' current location (but still about 35 miles north of Charlotte), or perhaps somewhere even closer to the Queen City, such as Concord, N.C., where Lowe's Motor Speedway is located.

Team CEO and driver of the No. 45 Dodge, Kyle Petty, isn't exactly thrilled with leaving the family homestead, but he also understands it might be necessary, given the organization's massive rebuilding program currently underway, to increase its competitiveness.

"I don't think you have to be an auto manufacturer to be in Detroit, so I don't think that you have to be a race team to succeed outside of Charlotte," Petty said. "Would it be a plus for us? It's a plus from the standpoint because new teams go there because that's where the talent pool is, the mechanics or people coming out of (college and trade schools).

"At some point in time, I think you've got to weigh it and say, 'Is it (necessary)?' Yeah, it might be."

If Kyle or Richard Petty has any hesitation about moving, they need look only at the example of their longtime friends, the legendary Wood Brothers. Having competed in NASCAR racing roughly as long as the Petty clan, the Wood Bros. organization moved two years ago from its long-time base in Stuart, Va., to the northern suburbs of Charlotte.

"It was a matter of survival for our team to move to the Charlotte area," team president Eddie Wood said in an interview last year. "If we hadn't, we probably would have had to close our doors."

FAN FAVORITE NOW GONE

Although the $1 million prize to the eventual winner remains, a long-time fan favorite will be missing from this year's non-points Nextel All-Star Challenge at Lowe's Motor Speedway in Charlotte.

Not only will the Challenge now be made up of four 20-lap sections (thus doing away with the previous three segments of 40, 30 and 20 laps – the latter being a true shootout), the unique and popular practice of inverting the field from the first to second part of the up-to-now, three-segment Challenge is history.

"I think with the inversion, it got a little confusing and got almost predictable," said NASCAR vice-president of racing operations Steve O'Donnell. "Instead of coming up with something that was almost manufactured, we thought that by opening pit road for that last segment and letting the teams decide almost by a natural inversion (which car gets out of the pits first).

"This was kind of the way of the way we wanted to go and let it be more like a normal race in terms of is if you're pit crew performing or not, and that will dictate how you exit pit road and start that final segment."

At the very least, fans should have been polled if they wanted the change. We'll see on May 19 what they think – but we're betting it's not going to be pretty