There was talk about things maybe being awkward between the Earnhardts, mostly between Dale Jr., Kelley and Teresa. Since Dale Jr. did leave Dale Earnhardt Inc. (and didn’t get to take the no. 8 with him) I’m sure it’s not all roses and kittens, but let’s all take a moment and think about it this way: Are they really all that different from us? The answer is no. Take five seconds and think about your own family’s issues and I’m sure you’d agree that we’ve all got our own stories, tensions and baggage. The only difference is they have to answer reporter’s questions about said baggage.

Anywhooo, besides all of that it was very cool to see all of Dale Sr.’s children together, Taylor and Kerry were also on hand for the unveiling. I think this — the No. 3 at Daytona — will be an awesome way to remember him.

Photos!!!

(Left to right) Teresa Earnhardt and Dale Earnhardt Jr. share a smile Thursday during a news conference at JR Motorsports in Mooresville, N.C. unveiling the No. 3 NASCAR Nationwide Series car that Earnhardt Jr. will run July 2 at Daytona International Speedway.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. stands next to the No. 3 Wrangler Chevrolet at JR Motorsports in Mooresville, N.C. Thursday. He will run the car in the NASCAR Nationwide Series at Daytona International Speedway on July 2.

(Left to right) Taylor Earnhardt, Kelley Earnhardt, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Richard Childress, Craig Errington with Wrangler, Teresa Earnhardt and Kerry Earnhardt pose for a picture with the No. 3 NASCAR Nationwide Series car at JR Motorsports in Mooresville, N.C. on Thursday.

(Second from right) Kelley Earnhardt talks during a press conference Thursday at JR Motorsports in Mooresville, N.C. as (left to right) Teresa Earnhardt, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Richard Childress and Wrangler VP of Marketing Craig Errington look on.

Host Winston Kelley begins a news conference Thursday at JR Motorsports in Mooresville, N.C. unveiling the No. 3 NASCAR Nationwide Series car that Dale Earnhardt Jr. will run July 2 at Daytona International Speedway.

(All photos credit: Mary Ann Chastain/Getty Images for NASCAR)

It’s going to be a good time and you should definitely come out. Blogs with Balls 3 is June 5th at Wrigley Field in Chicago, Ill. Tickets are limited so get yours NOW.

In other news…

– I wanted to put in my two cents about the new bookazine ESPN The Magazine published about Dale Earnhardt. In “Dale Earnhardt: The Legend Lives” I learned something new (well, new to me that is). Teresa Earnhardt started dating Dale when she was 19 and he was 27. That surprised me and it was just one piece of cool little details that could be found in the special collectible-worthy issue. It’ll be on sale through June, so be sure to pick up a copy.

– The book, “The Weekend Starts on Wednesday”, has a commercial featuring its author, Andrew Giangola. It’s hilarious (this is Andrew on helium) but all of the content is totally right on. There’s a ‘Fabulous’ mention in it, too.

The three day event, hosted by none other than an actual Earl, the Earl of March to be exact, celebrates all forms of racing. This year the festival featured a 1.16-mile hill-climbing competition for all classes and types of race cars and motorcycles, plus a 2.5-kilometer course for historic rally cars.

Four NASCAR teams made the trip across the pond to show their stuff — Hendrick Motorsports, Richard Childress Racing, Team Red Bull and Rusty Wallace Inc.

20-year-old Taylor Earnhardt drove her father’s No. 3 Richard Childress Racing chassis, the car that he drove to his last career win in October 2000. Teresa Earnhardt was on hand as well.

I completely understand why a mother would be there for her daughter at an event like this, but I don’t quite understand why you never see her at an actual NASCAR race when she owns a NASCAR race team. I’m just sayin’.

The other NASCAR drivers included Landon Cassill for Hendrick Motorsports, Rusty Wallace for Rusty Wallace Inc and Mike Skinner for Team Red Bull.

(Left to right) Taylor Earnhardt and Teresa Earnhardt share a moment before Taylor drives the famed No. 3 GM Goodwrench The Goodwood Festival of Speed at The Goodwood Estate on Friday in Chichester, England. (Photo Credit: Peter Fox/Getty Images for NASCAR)

(Left to right) NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Rusty Wallace, Hendrick Motorsports driver Landon Cassill and NASCAR Camping World Truck Series driver Mike Skinner talk during The Goodwood Festival of Speed at The Goodwood Estate on Friday in Chichester, England. (Photo Credit: Peter Fox/Getty Images for NASCAR)

Driving the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports T-Rex car, Landon Cassill takes on the hill climb Saturday at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in Chichester, England. (Photo Credit: Ed Heuvink)

Taylor Earnhardt, daughter of seven-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Dale Earnhardt, drives her father’s famous No. 3 GM Goodwrench Chevrolet at The Goodwood Festival of Speed at The Goodwood Estate on Friday in Chichester, England. (Photo Credit: Peter Fox/Getty Images for NASCAR)

Mike Skinner, driving the No. 83 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Red Bull Toyota Camry, steals the show with a 400-yard, smoking burnout that thrills the crowd. (Photo Credit: Peter Fox/Getty Images for NASCAR)

Beginning at 9:03 a.m. CT Saturday (August 16), Texas Motor Speedway will kick off a special promotion for the upcoming Dickies 500 in which fans purchasing four prime front stretch tickets for the Nov. 2 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race will receive a free “Dale & The Duke” collectible diecast stock car featuring American icons Dale Earnhardt and John Wayne.

Okay, so the diecast isn’t the thing that grabbed my attention it was the photos from the announcement of the promotion. The youngest daughter of Dale Earnhardt, and the only child of Teresa Earnhardt, was on hand for the unveiling of the “Dale & The Duke” car. Seeing Taylor Earnhardt’s name made me stop dead in my tracks. I can’t remember seeing a photo or hearing anything about her at all since last year when Dale Earnhardt Jr. asked for people to stop badmouthing his step-mother to protect his half-sister from having to hear those things about her mom.

I have to admit, I am intrigued and I’d like to know more about her, especially since you never hear boo about what she’s been up to since her father’s death. Not that we should know what’s going on in her life, I’m just curious like that. Actually to be totally honest I don’t want to know who she’s dating and all of that. I’m more curious about how she’s handled her father’s death and what her relationship is like with her siblings.

Yes, I’m nosey, deal with it.

(Left to right) President and CEO of Motorsports Authentics Mark Dyer, Hollywood star Buck Taylor, John Wayne’s daughter Marisa Wayne Ditteaux, Dale Earnhardt’s daughter Taylor Earnhardt and Texas Motor Speedway President Eddie Gossage took part in the unveiling of the “Dale and the Duke” program. (Photo Credit: Getty Images)

Meant to continue the legacies of both men, the “Dale and The Duke” program paired these legends together for the first time ever as part of the Legends Series that recently saw country music great Johnny Cash grace the hood of Earnhardt’s famous No. 3 Chevrolet. (Photo Credit: Getty Images)

It’s true too that I could care less which team this guy or that guy is going to in a general sense. I feel like it’s all really important when things are said and done, what’s the point of speculating on something that makes no difference to me? There are certain topics that are interesting like Tony Stewart co-owning Haas CNC or just the idea that Teresa Earnhardt would take on partners. Those are definitely conversation starters. But where Ryan Newman is going isn’t something I think about.

The “On Pit Row” experience got me thinking though and I’ve got an idea I want to try out. Once I figure out how to do it I’ll let you know what it is. How’s that for being vague?

In other news…

– I’m sad, deeply sad that I’m not going to Indy this week and not for the reasons that you might think. The Goo Goo Dolls are performing at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Saturday in the infield on Turn 10 of the road course. I looove them. Johnny Rzeznik. *sigh*

– If you’re a lucky person and you’re going to the Allstate 400 at The Brickyard or you just happen to live in the area you can meet Kurt Busch at Scotty’s Brewhouse (located at 3905 East 96th Street in Indianapolis, IN) from 6pm to 7pm on Friday. He’ll be serving Miller Lites of course.

– During the week off, Ryan Newman went to his hometown of South Bend, Indiana where they named a road in his honor. To visit Newman Way you must travel the half-mile stretch of highway near the South Bend Regional Airport.

– Casey Mears will participate in a Q&A session with other Chevrolet drivers during Chevrolet’s annual Fan Day at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He’ll also sign autographs and drive Chevrolet winners around the track in the official Chevy pace car.

– Do you want to question Jimmie Johnson about his season or about his hair (seriously, what’s going on there?)?? Well here’s your chance:

Starting today (Monday, July 21), The Jimmie Johnson Foundation and Richmond International Raceway Cares are auctioning off the opportunity to pose questions to Johnson on The Final Round with McElroy on Sports Radio 910 from 4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. EST. Proceeds from the auction will benefit both charitable foundations and the winning donation is tax deductible.

For those who would like to bid on this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, please visit www.sportsradio910.com. The winner will be awarded with a seat next to Johnson, driver of the #48 Chevrolet, where he or she will be able to ask questions. The winner also receives two tickets to the Chevy Rock & Roll 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Richmond International Raceway on Saturday, September 6. The auction closes on Monday, July 28, at 7:00 p.m. EST.

Trevor Hoffman, the all-time saves leader in Major League Baseball, was a guest of Mike Wallace at Saturday night’s race at Gateway International Raceway. Hoffman (far left) and his San Diego Padres teammates were in town for a series against the St. Louis Cardinals. Joining Hoffman on Wallace’s pit box were Chase Headley, Kevin Jarvis and Trevor’s son Quinn. (Photo Credit: Padraic Major for NASCAR)

Landon Cassill (L), a native of Cedar Rapids, Ia., and Carl Edwards, who is from Columbia, Mo., lead fans on a charity track walk Saturday at Gateway. Proceeds from the event went to the American Red Cross and its outreach to Midwest flood victims. (Photo Credit: Padraic Major for NASCAR)

Let’s review:

– There’s a report out that Teresa Earnhardt has been courting potential investors for Dale Earnhardt Inc. I knew this would throw Dale Earnhardt fans into a tizzy. From a financial standpoint I can understand why the would do this, but at the same time it’s kind of irritating because she wouldn’t give Dale Earnhardt Jr. half of his father’s company. DEI president Max Siegel is saying that they don’t have plans to sell the company at this time. Mmmhmmm.

– The Navy is ending its sponsorship of JR Motorsports’ No. 88 Nationwide series car at the end of this year. Really? Wow. I’m surprised about this one just because they’ve been with them from the beginning and Dale Jr. has been super supportive of the military community. It’s interesting, but then again I’m kind of glad they’re not sponsoring a car anymore, only because I don’t think that our military should be sponsoring racecars. I mean, aren’t there other more important things they could be doing with that money? I’m just saying.

– So I just read that Tony Stewart is set to announce (tomorrow) his plans to leave Joe Gibbs Racing and start his own team, taking over at Haas-CNC Racing. I guess this isn’t surprising, since people have been talking about it for a while now. It would be nice if one of these so-called rumors would actually not come true for once.

– Okay, so here’s the best piece of news today. Actor Brendan Fraser will be on hand for the Lifelock.com 400 at Chicagoland this weekend. He’ll be there to promote his upcoming movie The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (they’re really wringing the life out of that franchise, aren’t they?). Ryan Newman’s No. 12 Kodak Dodge Charger will carry a special paint scheme for the movie and Fraser will also serve as Grand Marshal for the race. He’ll be signing autographs, along with Ryan, at the No. 12 souvenir trailer at 1:30 p.m. CT. on Saturday.

Uhm, okay, I have sort of a small, tiny, wee crush on Mr. Fraser and I’m so disgustingly excited at the prospect of seeing him in person. Dare I ask a question at the press conference on Saturday? I’m not sure of what I should ask, it needs to be clever and smart and fabulous. If you can think of something let me know!

I came away from watching DALE with this super peaceful feeling like anything was possible and that this was really going to happen for me. I felt good. Which I know isn’t the normal response you’d think you’d have after watching a documentary about the life of a NASCAR legend who died way too soon. It was truly touching and very honest. I think you get a good sense of Dale Earnhardt and the man that he was. I liked the fact that there were interviews with people from pretty much every part of his life. It was very emotional to me, and I loved how they framed the movie around his Daytona 500 win.

All in all it’s a great piece of filmmaking and I encourage anyone that hasn’t seen it yet to do so. I believe that you can take something useful away from anyone’s story. My mom always told me when I was in school to read everything even if, at first glance, it had nothing to do with me. So if I learned one thing from Dale Earnhardt’s story it was that you should never stop working towards your dreams. Never, ever stop. Sometimes it takes a lot longer to get there than you think it should but you have to keep trying.

Oh and one more thing… after seeing this documentary my mind is still boggled over why Teresa Earnhardt couldn’t give up the 8 to Dale Jr. It’s just sad and just plain wrong. Forget about the money, it should be about family and that’s why he should get to keep the number. But whatever, what’s done is done and I’ll leave it at that. I know a number isn’t everything, and that Dale Jr. has a ton of talent to take him far.

Much to my dismay Martin Truex Jr. wasn’t able to skip past Kurt Busch for the win today. Dale Earnhardt Jr. managed to jump up to 13th in the points with his 12th place finish but he’s still a ways back in the points. Which, for the record, sucks a big one. Ugh.

Even though I only got to listen to the last 30 laps or so of the race (and at work no less) I still had fun listening to Dale Jr.’s scanner chatter. This exchange between Junior, Tony Eury Jr. and spotter Steve Hmiel was very funny (synopsis courtesy of Jade Gurss):

The Bud car started each run after a pit stop with very loose handling characteristics, and then would eventually get tighter as the run went along. Sometimes the transition between the two conditions was an abrupt one. Dale Jr. spoke with Tony Jr. during a late caution period on lap 189.
Dale Jr: “I was (expeletive) wreckin! What place are we in?”
Eury Jr: “12th. The 83 (B. Vickers) is your next spot.”
Dale Jr: “I’m gonna tell ya, I was spinnin’-out looooooooooose! I don’t know why – maybe it’s that spring we put in the right front, but it’s loose loose loose the first six laps or so, and then I go into the next corner and all of a sudden, it’s tight! (to spotter Hmiel) “I know the 07 (C. Bowyer) is mad at me, but I didn’t hit him! He was loose on his own! Tell his spotter!”
Hmiel: “I know, I told him.”
Dale Jr: “I’m not sure I believe ya. I mean, I was on the brakes too.”
Eury Jr: (laughing) “Lemme tell ya, my wife will be proud of me. She always gets on me and says I can never make you loose…”
Dale Jr: “I’m so loose, I should be fast…”
Hmiel: “Boy, that 17 (M. Kenseth) cleaned the 24′s (J. Gordon) clock!”
Dale Jr: “Well, he had it comin.’”
Hmiel: “Yeah, that’s the truth. And I’d take a lie detector test on that.”

In other news…

– People have commented on my blog and expressed their dislike of Teresa Earnhardt for being stingy with the No. 8, but I have to say one thing: If you’re going to call the woman an expletive at least spell her name right. I love you guys but lets make sure we get it right the first time.

– All of the photos that I have access to from the extra-long race weekend were pretty boring and pedestrian — I didn’t think anyone wanted photos of drivers talking to each other — except for this one of Clint Bowyer and his girlfriend Athena Barber. They’re so cute together.

(Getty Images for NASCAR)

– R&B singer Brian McKnight sang the national anthem and was absolutely wonderful! He wasn’t pitchy at all, unlike Country duo Big and Rich at Daytona.

– Actor Kevin Costner’s announcement of “Gentlemen, start your engines” thoroughly sucked. I think they should have actor/hottie Matthew McConaughey do it every week. He was the Grand Marshal of the Daytona 500 in 2005 and he kicked butt in delivering those most famous words in motor sports. It’s not that big a deal really but it’s so nice to have someone spice it up a little. McConaughey is total character and if you’ve seen his work in the movie “Dazed and Confused” you know what I mean.

– Even though it was completely disheartening to see Dale Earnhardt Jr. leave the race early due to engine problems, it was very funny to watch him take a bow after managing to keep his car from hitting the wall. See Teresa, he can do both — be a race car driver AND a personality!

– On the other hand it wasn’t funny at all to watch David Reutimann after his car crashed into the wall late in the race. It was obvious that he was hurt watching him slumped in his seat and then slow to finally pull his window net down. Apparently the g-force impact from the crash was among the hardest ever recorded. Now there’s one record book I wouldn’t want to be a part of. But most importantly Reutimann was able to walk away from it all and is doing ok now.

– After Jeff Gordon finished 2nd on Sunday he headed over to the Vanity Fair Oscar party at Morton’s in West Hollywood with his pregnant wife (and NON-Supermodel) Ingrid Vandebosch.

Jeff Gordon and his wife Ingrid Vandebosch arrive at the annual Vanity Fair Oscar party at Morton’s in West Hollywood, Calif., Sunday, Feb. 25, 2007. (AP Photo/Danny Moloshok)

Brian McKnight sings the national anthem prior to the Auto Club 500 at California Speedway. (Photo Credit: Donal Miralle/Getty Images)

Aren’t his eyes gorgeous? And they perfectly match his sponsor’s colors

J.J. Yeley is ready to practice his No. 18 Interstate Batteries Chevrolet at California Speedway on Saturday. (Photo Credit: Todd Warshaw/Getty Images for NASCAR)

David Reutimann (00) slides to a stop after a crash in turn 4 at the California Speedway in Fontana, Calif. , Sunday,Feb. 25, 2007. (AP Photo/Dave Waters)

Dale Earnhardt Jr. bows to the crowd after spinning out and missing the wall in Turn 4 at the California Speedway in Fontana, Calif. Sunday, Feb. 25, 2007. (AP Photo/Dave Waters)

A skull design decorates the back of Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s helmet in the garage area during practice for the NASCAR Nextel Cup Auto Club 500 in Fontana, Calif., Friday, Feb. 23, 2007. (AP Photo/Mark Avery)

Officially titled NASCAR Jackson Hewitt Preseason Thunder at Daytona, teams began testing their cars for the upcoming season. Teams that were in odd-number positions in the car owner standings as of July 12, 2006 tested this week. The even-numbered teams will test next week.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. was the fastest car in practice on Tuesday but of course that was overshadowed by the so-called drama between him and his step-mother Teresa Earnhardt.

Teresa was originally quoted as saying this to the Wall Street Journal. Junior then said this at a press conference on Monday. To which Ricky Rudd gave his two cents on Tuesday (he was asked for his opinion, so it’s not like he just busted out with it).

I just hope that this all blows over, Junior renews his deal with DEI and we can all get back to racing and trying to win!

In other news…

– Greg Biffle got engaged over the holidays to his kick-ass girlfriend Nicole Lunders. She’s the woman who got so pissed with Kurt Busch, after he put Biffle’s car into the wall at Texas last year, that she stormed over to Busch’s pit box and chewed out his fiancée Eva Bryan. That was the coolest thing I had seen at a race in a very long time.

– This year’s NASCAR Day has been set for May 18th.

Fans interested in participating in NASCAR Day can purchase a pin, sign up his or her company and even purchase NASCAR Day apparel by going to www.nascar.com/foundation. NASCAR fans, corporations, schools and organizations across the country are encouraged to donate $5 and all participants receive a collectible 2007 NASCAR Day lapel pin for their donation.

Kasey Kahne signs autographs for fans during NASCAR Jackson Hewitt Preseason Thunder at Daytona International Speedway. (All Photos Credit: Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images for NASCAR)