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.

I’d heard the stories about the two faces of Tony Stewart. There’s the Tony at the racetrack, who would rather do just about anything than talk to the media. Then there’s the Tony away from the racetrack, when he isn’t worried about getting the most out of his car, and that Tony is all that we could ask for as an interview.

I can now verify that with my own experience.

I was going in to talk to both him and crew chief Greg Zipadelli for our NASCAR preseason section cover story (Feb. 10, in case I haven’t mentioned that), and I knew both had talked about their relationship for years. So I was a little bit nervous I would get shut down by Stewart before I even started.

I started off with Zipadelli alone in his office, and he was good. We talked about how he ended up at Gibbs and his connection with Stewart. Then Stewart’s PR guy, Mike Arning, walked Stewart into the office and left us there. I figured I was done with Zipadelli, and his phone had rung twice in our time together, so he excused himself.

The moment of truth…and Stewart was better than I could have ever dreamed of. We talked about his purchases at Barrett-Jackson’s car auction. You can go to the auction’s site and look at the car list. He bought a ’57 Bel Air and there were several of those that were black and white so I’m not sure which one is his. He bought a 1950 Mercury for $85,000 and a 1967 GTO for $120,000.

Oh, and we definitely talked about his hair, which is much longer than it was last season. My exact phrasing (moving my hands around his head area): What’s up with that? He laughed and explained:

“The girl that cuts it is here in Charlotte; I live in Indiana. I went six weeks and didn’t have a day in my schedule to come down here and get it cut. This was probably late spring and it got to the point where it was so ratty I wasn’t even embarrassed about it any more. It was too long to be short. So I just let it go. As the season has gone on, there were more and more women like, ‘Don’t cut your hair, we love your hair!’ and I was like, ‘Whatever, it’s saving me money on haircuts and I don’t have to worry about being in Charlotte,’ so we just kind of let it go. It’s funny because our local news station in Indiana had a segment on it. It’s like, ‘Wow, this is kind of funny that just not getting a haircut has created such a stir.’ It’s kind of why I’ve let it go and just run with it because it’s funny to see just how obsessed people get with stuff that really doesn’t matter.”

He also voted for his most memorable 500s (he actually gave me five) and we talked about his cell phone (he has the Verizon Voyager I’m looking at getting).

Oh, yeah, and we talked about him and Zippy.

I got so much stuff I’ll be able to do not only the cover story on their relationship, but also a Stewart feature during Speedweeks…so Smoke fans, keep an eye out.

I know I’ve kind of disappeared, and for that I apologize. But it has been a grind the past few days. I just sent in a notebook for tomorrow (Hint: Carl Edwards doesn’t buy his own clothing) and am now about to hit the road back to Richmond.

I PROMISE I will blog about my sit-down with Tony Stewart and the craziness of the media tour stop at Hendrick Motorsports when I get back to town. It may not be until tomorrow night, but I promise I will do it.

P.S. I’ve asked some drivers for their most memorable Daytona 500s too, so keep the votes coming. Maybe your comments will appear next to Tony’s or Matt Kenseth’s! E-mail me at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) with your top three most memorable 500s, and please don’t hesitate to leave comments on each.

Till next time ...

So I didn’t check back in last night (sorry, LONG day). We went to Childress for dinner, and were ushered into his newest building: 93,000 square feet of space which houses his fabrication shop and an 18,000 square foot auditorium. The meal was stunning (Childress always goes all out on everything), and the press conference afterward was entertaining as well.

First he introduced his development drivers, which include his grandsons Austin and Ty Dillon. Then he brought up key players in the Earnhardt Childress Racing Engine program, including Richie Gilmore. Announcements for the upcoming season’s driver lineups: Clint Bowyer, Kevin Harvick, Jeff Burton in Cup; Bowyer in the No. 2 Nationwide car, Burton and Scott Wimmer splitting the No. 29 again, and Bobby Labonte and (hopefully) Stephen Leicht in the No. 21. That one depends on getting sponsorship for Leicht past his first two races.

Then we broke off into 1-on-1s (a misnomer if there ever was one, as I was stuck on the outside of about 15 people around Childress, reaching as far as I could with my digital recorder). My favorite tidbit of those sessions was Childress talking about Bowyer.

“I don’t think Clint’s even reached his stride,” Childress said. “I saw a young man that had a desire to win that reminded me of another driver I had for quite a few years that started out with nothing and became one of the greatest race [car] drivers, and that was Dale Earnhardt. He probably reminds me of his style as anybody I’ve ever seen come along.”

Talk about high praise (and expectations).

This morning, Sprint previewed the season by talking about all its innovations…there are name changes (Sprint All-Star Race XXIV and Sprint Showdown instead of All-Star Challenge and the Open), as well as the introduction of Sprint Mobile, a way to follow races on the cell phone for free —if you’re a Sprint customer. Always a catch with those guys.

Tonight is Joe Gibbs Racing, with everyone’s favorite former Richmond-area resident Denny Hamlin holding court. I truly believe watching this team, with all of its talent and egos, could be my favorite thing about this season.

More to follow, probably later tonight. And don’t forget to e-mail me about your most memorable Daytona 500s!

We’re underway, already having talked to the Chip Ganassi with Felix Sabates team (all nine of the drivers represented) and made a trip to the NASCAR Research and Development Center.

Ganassi is a multinational conglomerate…six countries represented, and Reed Sorenson is the stock-car veteran of the Cup trio. He said he feels good about the upcoming season, and hopes this is the year CGRFS makes a run at competing with the Hendrick Motorsportses and Joe Gibbs Racings of the world.

At the R&D Center, they announced a couple of rule changes for next year, including a slight change to the top-35 rule. I’ve included the full rundown in my notebook for tomorrow, so check that out there.

OK, we’re on our way to Richard Childress Racing in about 20 minutes, so I’ll either update with that later tonight or tomorrow evening. Tomorrow I’m getting some one-on-one time with Tony Stewart and Greg Zipadelli for the cover story for our preseason section (Feb. 10!).

Wish me luck.

Thanks to those of you who have e-mailed me your top three Daytona 500s…It’s great reading the passion in some of the letters! Keep ‘em coming, however, since we still have more than two weeks to go to take votes.

Also, I’ll be updating this space a lot more often. Every night next week from the NASCAR media tour in Charlotte, I’ll weigh in. Want to know about Petty’s new shop, or how Kyle Busch is fitting in at JGR? I’ll tell you what I think. After that, I’ll be posting regularly during the season. I want to make this a must-read place for you.

And please feel free to post your reactions. Love to hear what you think.

Well, it’s time again to count down to The Great American Race. No other sport has its biggest spectacle as its first event, and this year’s 50th running of the Daytona 500 figures to be big.

So, I need your help. We’re working on our preseason section (comes out Feb. 10!) and want to do a list of the best Daytona 500s. And guess who’s going to rank them?

You.

We’ve all seen how I rank drivers (I had Juan Pablo Montoya and Kasey Kahne in the Chase last year, people), so we’re going to let you take over the center of our section. You’ll send me your favorites, with your reasons why, and we’ll even use some of your comments in the paper that day.

So, let loose. What are your three best Daytona 500s ever? Was it Dale Sr. finally winning it? Was it the Yarborough-Allison fight in the infield? Was it last year’s showdown between Harvick and Martin? You tell us.

You can comment here on the blog—maybe you’ll remind someone else of a good one—but for your vote to count, it has to be e-mailed to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). I’ll take your votes and comments until Feb. 3.

Thanks, and thanks for reading.