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Ya know, I've seen several family businesses destroyed after the death of one of the principals and the kids demanding their inheritance. I know Jr. fans think he hung the moon and can do anything, but they should remember, DE drove the car, Theresa ran the business.

Theresa could let Jr take his cars and his Beer elsewhere, close the shop and she could do rather nicely with the income from Dale's memorabilia sales and endorsements and the DEI museum without the hassle of 150 employees.

She developed a real distaste of the press after Dale's death and the ghouls wanting to see the autopsy report and photos...

"I know Jr. fans think he hung the moon and can do anything, but they should remember, DE drove the car, Theresa ran the business."

I was just out walking the dog early this morning, the moon and the stars were so beautiful and I just had to thank Jr for putting them up there. :)

I think all the other drivers, Gordon, Harvick, Burton, Stewart etc and almost the entire media can't be wrong in saying Teresa is an absentee owner and that DEI is slowly drifting away from the competitive edge they had 3 or 4 years ago. They have not kept up in the R&D area because of a lack of personnel and funding. Richie Gilmore who should be at the shop doing that is relegated to be at the track for the owner.

This whole commotion started when she did the WSJ article saying Jr needed to decide whether he wanted to be a celebrity or a Nascar driver. Many wondered if she ever said that or was taken out of context. She never bothered to explain other than when cornered she said she "probably" meant that.

Even other owners understand that to run a Cup team successfully you have to be there, spend the money and know what's going on. There was a Wind Tunnel show in 2005 when DEI swapped teams. He had Ray Evernham on and he asked him what he thought would happen to DEI since it appeared to be heading in a downward spiral. Ray answered very seriously and said they already have the right man to step up to the plate and take care of DEI. He said that man was Dale Jr. He said Dale was the man for the job and the time was coming when he would take DEI in the direction it needed to go. Despain looked at him kind of shocked and said really? Ray shook his head yes, really!

Then there's Max.........who said "If you've been in business long enough, nothing surprises you," Siegel said Saturday. He has been on the job as DEI's president of global operations for about a month. "I'm not offended by anything that anyone who contributes would ask. If someone was not aggressive, didn't want the most for themselves … I'd be afraid to be in business with them." Note his title says nothing about motorsports. Time will tell.