Last week on the media tour, we took a trip to Dale Earnhardt Inc., the “Garage Mahal” as it were. And there was one thing, or person, glaringly missing from the shop.

Dale Earnhardt Jr.

The son of the founder was virtually non-existent. No signs of his Daytona 500 victory. Nothing commemorating his Busch Series titles. Nothing at all. When asked about it by ESPN.com’s David Newton, Max Siegel danced his way around it. He talked about how every weekend there are three chances to help grow the Dale Earnhardt legacy: DEI’s driver, Dale Jr. at Hendrick Motorsports and the Richard Childress Racing drivers using the Earnhardt Childress Racing engines.

Junior was told about the eradication of his time at DEI during the trip to Hendrick later that day. He was asked about it again yesterday during Cup testing at Las Vegas.

The following comes from a transcript of the interview sent out by Chevrolet.

“Everybody has different ways of doing things.  There’s no real right or wrong either way.  I don’t take it personal that you can’t find much of a trace of us over there.
“Didn’t really bother me because I deal with it and I’m all right.  But it hurt my—I got to thinking about it, and it sort of hurt my feelings.  It’s sort of a—even the guys that are still there that worked on that car, to not see the accolades, any sort of appreciation for the work they did, that they’re still there.  And the Tony [Eury] Juniors, the guys that aren’t there anymore, that had something to do with the Daytona 500 win, that had something to do with the Busch Series championships and stuff.”

Junior may have come to grips with his relationship with his stepmother, Teresa Earnhardt, but that doesn’t mean he’s OK with everything. And for better or worse, he does care about his crew guys.

It seems both sides have moved on.